The Light That Disappeared
by SilverTreeandGoldLeaf
Summary: After the battle of Nagoya, everything goes wrong for Shinya. He's sent on a suicide mission, his best friend is possessed by a demon and his dark past is threatening to come back to haunt. When things go wrong, Guren is the only one capable of making things right - but can he break free from Mahiru and save Shinya before it's too late? GureShin
1. Chapter 1

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _A/N: I'm starting a new story… again. But I just can't stop myself - after watching and reading Owari no Seraph I just had to write something! So, I decided to write a story about Shinya and Guren. Yes, this'll be Gureshin - at first it'll be just one sided (well, that's only because Guren is possessed by Mahiru). This story starts after the battle in Nagoya, Shinya is in prison and Guren is fighting alongside Kureto (damn it Guren, get your shit together! You can't leave your dear Shinya all alone _!) and well, we'll see how this goes on. There'll be only few OC's in this story, because I'm creating Shinya a past before being adopted to the Hiragi-family._

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

 _Chapter 1_

Shinya's pov:

After the battle of Nagoya, everything had gone to hell.

Well, the battle itself had been some kind of hell already, but things at the Shibuya headquarters changed, the JIDA changed. But not for the better. It had been almost six months after the battle and Hiragi Kureto was now the leader of everything, not even the head of the Hiragi-family, Hiragi Tenri could control his oldest son - the son, who had once been a pretty good man. Someone who had cared for his people.

Now, Kureto was nothing more than a murderer, who only cared for power. Because of that damned power, many good people lost their life. People, who shouldn't have died.

Worst thing was, that Ichinose Guren followed Kureto.

And Hiragi Shinya always followed Guren.

Shinya - formerly a major general and Kureto's right hand man (at least he had thought so) - was now locked away, in the one of the most darkest cells at Shibuya. He did not know, what was going on in the outside world - he didn't know how Guren was - nor, how his other friends were doing. He did know, that Hyakuya Yu had escaped with his friends, including his younger sister Shinoa, and that they were probably hiding somewhere far away from Shibuya - hopefully alive and well.

Shinya was happy, that at least they got away. He himself had been caught by Guren. The raven haired lieutenant colonel had been his friend, and Shinya had trusted him. He would've trusted his life into Guren's hands - honestly, he still would. Being caught by Guren and then being locked away by his older brother… it all made Shinya think about his life again. Did he have anyone he could call family?

Even if he would still trust Guren, it wouldn't stop the raven head from killing him, hurting him. Shinya would never be able to truly hurt the raven. He would trust Guren, he would forgive him. He would stand by his side, even if Guren wouldn't see it. He would take the blame on himself - Shinya would let Guren hut him all over again, even kill him - if it made the raven head feel better. If it meant, that Guren could live.

After all, they were supposed to be _family._

But, did the raven head think the same of him? Would Guren save him, would Guren even look at him anymore? The man Shinya had known was gone now - there was someone else inside Guren's body now, the raven's soul was buried somewhere deep. Shinya couldn't reach that deep. His voice hadn't been enough, Guren hadn't listened to him.

Because there was someone else in his mind, whispering him things that weren't allowed to be heard by anyone else. Someone else, who was far more closer to Guren's heart than Shinya. Someone, who could control Guren, _break_ the raven completely.

Hiragi Mahiru was something completely different from Shinya and the only one who had touched Guren's heart. She had meant a lot to the raven head, Shinya knew it. It made him little jealous and the way Guren had always looked at her made Shinya's heart ache. When Mahiru had died, Shinya had believed that things would change to the better. Not that he hated Mahiru - she had once been a great ally, but also a betrayer. She had broken Guren's heart. Shinya could never forgive her.

And so, until Guren would be back, until the raven head would be in the control again, Shinya would refuse to follow him. When he would see Guren's violet eyes again, then he would follow him anywhere, anytime. Then he would forgive him, be his friend again.

Still, Mahiru was one heck of a talker, and with Guren's voice it was seriously hard to refuse her. If it weren't for the red eyes and the coldness in Guren's voice, Shinya would've fallen to the trap long time ago.

Both Kureto and Guren had come to his cell many times now, but Shinya always refused to listen to them. Now, they had been gone for over a month already, Shinya hadn't heard a word from them. He was starting to get really anxious - not being able to go outside and know things… it was unbearable. He was sure he would go crazy soon. What if the vampires had attacked? Was Guren okay? And what about Guren's team? Shinya hadn't heard of them either and no guard gave him information. Shinya was no longer a major general, people didn't respect him anymore. He was nothing.

But it didn't bother him all that much, he had always wanted to stop being a soldier. Not this way, though. He had wanted to retire once the war against the vampires was over. Now, it seemed to only be a dream. Sure, they still could defeat the vampires - with the seraphs and all, but it wasn't the way Shinya wanted to win. Kureto and Guren… they were changing humans to something horrible. Soon enough, there would be no one left. And once the war would be over, could they call themselves humans anymore?

Shinya was just thinking it, when Aio Sangu, Kureto's assistant, came to him. She gave Shinya a message from Kureto - his older brother wanted him to stop being an stupid idiot and join him. Shinya declined, telling Aio to say Kureto to shut up. Aio promised to tell Kureto his words, but Shinya doubted it. After all, a loyal dog wouldn't want to hurt her owners feelings. Before she left him alone again, Aio told him that Guren was going to be back as well.

Her words made Shinya worry and he was feeling really desperate. Whatever Kureto and Guren had been doing for the past month, it wasn't anything good. And if they were back, they had probably managed to do whatever they had left to do. Shinya was relived to hear, that Guren was alive but…

He clenched his hands to fist as he thought the raven head, sitting in the cold floor of the cell. That damn Guren, leaving him behind like that! Shinya wondered had Goshi, Sayuri, Shigure and Mito joined Guren - they were part of his team after all. But again, they had seen what Guren had done. What Kureto and _Mahiru_ had done. They were people with good hearts, Shinya knew they wouldn't follow Kureto.

But Guren…

 _Please, everyone,_ Shinya thought, closing his eyes and sighing loudly. _Don't give up, no matter what._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Shinya was home again.

No, not in the Hiragi-family's manor. He was in his real home, with his real family. Shinya's family was quite rich as well, they had a big manor as well, in the middle of nowhere, far away from the nuisance of the cities.

Shinya remembered the green grass and the beautiful horses they had. And how much fun it was to run around the corridors of the big house and play with an another silver head. A young girl… no, a girl that was in the same age as he was.

Yes, that's how it had been. Shinya was always followed by an girl, no matter where he went. They were always together, and Shinya didn't mind. Her smile made his day and his hers. They played together, ate together, even slept together (not like that). She was Shinya's sun and Shinya her moon.

Shinya's parents were both always busy, but when they had time, they spend it with Shinya and the girl. And they had fun. Shinya had loving family, and he loved them back as much. He loved the manor, the green grass, the horses… Behind their manor, almost a mile away, there was an old forest and in the forest there was an old mill, that wasn't used anymore. Shinya and the girl always went there - it was their secret place.

He had loved his life back then.

And now, in his dream, he was living it again. But, in the end things didn't go well. He lost it all, his parents, the manor, the horses, the old mill and the old forest, even the girl… She no longer followed him. When Shinya eight, his home was destroyed. He lost everything. Everyone died, expect him. He didn't even know how and why. Why had his family been killed? Shinya knew they didn't die on their own, he had seen how his mother and father had been killed right on their bed. He had seen a person lighting the manor on fire.

His family had been murdered, leaving only him alive.

" _Don't take her away!"_

It was a lonely and desperate scream. He remembered yelling to a dark person, who was taking part of him away. The silver haired girl, the one who always followed him… They took her. Shinya remembered crying and screaming for them to be back, he remembered begging to have the silver haired girl back. Just so he could say goodbye… Just so he could make things right.

" _No!"_

Shinya jolted awake. He was covered in cold sweat, and he was still in the cell, not at the manor. His body was shaking slightly and he felt really tired. The cell was dark and cold, making Shinya shiver. It took a moment for Shinya to catch his breath and forget the awful dream he was having.

He couldn't quite remember his past before the Hiragi-family. He remembered the burning manor and his family… but not the girl. Shinya could only see her in his dreams, but he knew she was real. After the manor burned to the ground, Shinya moved to his uncle and his wife. It didn't took long until they sold him to the Hiragi-family, and his hell started.

The days after being sold were all about training and getting stronger. Fighting against kids just like him, until only the strongest was standing. Shinya wasn't sure was it a good thing that he had been _the strongest,_ because he had lived. Back then, he had been happy. But now, he wasn't sure anymore. It would've been lot more easier to die back then.

"Were you having an nightmare?" a familiar voice asked, making Shinya's heart skip a beat. He hadn't even realized, that there was someone else in the cell. His senses were sharp - but not enough sharp without Byakkomaru. His powers had been sealed, and so, he didn't even have the demon beside him.

Inside the cell, pretty close to him, was standing his "older brother" Hiragi Kureto. Kureto looked the same as always, an arrogant smile on his face.

"Ah, nii-san", Shinya said, putting a fake smile on his face. "It's good to see you. How come you're here? I thought that someone like _you_ would never spend his precious time on someone like _me,_ ne, nii-san ~?" Shinya made sure Kureto heard the mocking tune of his voice.

Kureto merely chuckled, ignoring his comment. "I've come here to talk sense into your head, Shinya", he said, crimson eyes looking at Shinya's blue ones. "You know, you could get out of here and have your weapon back. You could have your status as a major general back as well."

"Ahaha", Shinya chuckled. "I'm not interested, nii-san. You see, I'm not a murderer like you."

Kureto snorted. "Are you sure about that?" Shinya's felt like the air around them would've gotten colder. He knew exactly what his brother was talking about, and even from Kureto, it was low. "I see you're not", Kureto chuckled. He walked little closer and leaned over Shinya. "You aren't strong enough to resist me, Shinya. All you can do now, is to submit to me and become my loyal servant. Just like Guren."

Shinya felt his heart sink. He turned his gaze away from Kureto's. "I refuse", he bluntly said.

Kureto chuckled again. "This is the side of you I don't see very often. You usually just tease everyone, so no one could see how broken you truly are, Shinya. I guess it's a good mask - always smile and never let it falter." Kureto paused for a moment to look at Shinya's expression, but Shinya gave him exactly what he always did - an kind, yet cold smile.

"Join me, and I'll make sure that Guren _and_ his squad will be okay", Kureto said, his voice stronger and more commanding than before. "This is the last chance, Shinya. You don't want to fail the Hiragi's, do you?"

Kureto held out his hand and Shinya knew, that he had no other choice. Kureto would kill Guren and the others, Shinya knew it. His brother would show no mercy - he would kill them all, and leave Shinya alive, it being the cruelest punishment for the silver head.

So, he took Kureto's hand.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Two weeks later:

Shinya sighed and closed his office door after him. He was a major general again, and everything seemed to be normal. Expect, nothing was really normal. Or Shinya didn't know. He had been gone for five months - he didn't know what was normal anymore. But having Byakkomaru and his position back was something. He knew, that Kureto didn't entirely trust him and he knew he was being watched. So, Shinya made sure to behave as well as he could, but he tried to be himself at the same time - which was quite hard, since he was always teasing others.

Two weeks, for two weeks he had been doing the same old job. Filling papers, training and going to some stupid meetings, that were boring as ever. Hiragi Tenri, his adoptive father was still always there, but Shinya knew he wasn't in control anymore. Tenri was just a figure, a person showed to the people of Shibuya. No, the whole Japan thought that Tenri was the one in control. Only few people like Shinya knew who was pulling the strings.

Shinya walked through the familiar corridors, towards his brothers office. He was going to meet Kureto there, his brother had called him up, saying that he had some mission for him. Shinya had been little surprised, but he didn't complain. Kureto was keeping him close and made sure to control him, always threatening to kill Goshi and the others. He didn't threaten Guren anymore for some reason.

Maybe Kureto wasn't able to kill Guren anymore. After all, Mahiru had been stronger than Kureto.

Shinya stopped in front of the door that lead to his brothers office and knocked few times. It didn't take long until he was answered.

"Come in."

Shinya opened the door and stepped inside the dark office. There was only one light and the office didn't seem nice at all. Shinya remembered Guren's office - it had been filled with light and warmness, even some stupid music. Kureto's office was cold and dark, the owner standing in front of the huge window, that showed him the whole city of Shibuya. Like a king watching his people.

Kureto turned around, and stared at Shinya for a while.

"It's good that you came, Shinya", he said with a deep voice. "Please, have a seat." Shinya sat down opposite of Kureto, as his brother sat down as well. Aio wasn't there, which was quite weird, since it seemed that she was following Kureto everywhere.

 _Just like she followed me._

Shinya shivered at the thought. Aio was definitely not like the girl who always followed Shinya. The silver haired girl had been warm and nice, always smiling kindly. She wasn't Aio - cold and calm, always doing what she was ordered to do. The two girls were different like the sun and the moon - and that's what made Shinya smile inwardly.

"I have a new mission for you", Kureto stated, crossing his arms on his chest.

"Yes, I know", Shinya answered, a teasing smile appearing on his face. "You told me about it, nii-san. C'mon, you can't have that bad of a memory."

Kureto snorted, looking annoyed.

 _Ahaha, looks like I hit a nerve,_ Shinya thought, his smile getting little wider. It was always delightful to make Kureto annoyed, even with his own life at risk - but Guren had been more fun, since the raven's reaction were so fun to watch.

"Very funny, Shinya", Kureto sighed. "But this isn't a joke. I'm sending you outside of Shibuya, to Ikebukuro."

"Ikebukuro?" Shinya repeated. "What for?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kureto smirked. "The vampires have taken control of Ikebukuro, and I need someone to take that part of Tokyo back. And that someone is going to be you, Shinya."

Shinya was little confused. What he had learnt in the two weeks, was that humans were doing pretty well against the vampires. Nagoya was now under their control, as well as Shinjuku and most of Tokyo. Then there was Ikebukuro. How was it possible, that something so close to the Shibuya, was actually under the control of the vampires? How could Kureto let something like that happen?

"I see you're doubting me", Kureto said. "We lost Ikebukuro to the vampires two months ago. But now, we'll take it back. I'm sending you and your old team there."

"My old team?" Shinya asked.

"Yes", Kureto nodded. "If _you_ haven't forgotten, you aren't part of Guren's squad. You have a squad on your own."

 _Oh yeah, nii-san is right,_ Shinya thought. He had actually forgotten his squad, but he wasn't going to let Kureto know about that. _Well, this mission should be interesting._

"So, what do you want us to do?" he asked. "You know, we can't win back Ikebukuro with five men."

"I don't need you to win it back right away", Kureto answered. "Investigate. Kill few vampires - nobles if you can. Don't get caught and possibly, come back alive. You'll be one week away. After that, report back to me. And Shinya, I know if you'll try to run away. Don't forget that I can kill Guren's squad in a blink of an eye."

"I don't really believe into that", Shinya retorted, smirking. "They're strong. But don't worry, I wont run." He stood up and started to make his leave. "We'll see within a week, nii-san. Have a nice night."

Then he left, not caring to ask an permission from his brother. Now, that he was going to leave to a suicide mission, there was a person he needed to say goodbye to. He would never make the same mistake again. This time he would say goodbye the way it should be said.

Shinya jut hoped that Guren would hear him.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

He didn't bother knocking on Guren's office door, he already knew that the person inside was waiting for him. Shinya opened the door and stepped inside. Guren's office had changed, it looked lot like Kureto's office now. There was no music, only one light and it was quite cold. The desk was full of different papers and a lonely sword was placed on it as well.

Guren, or Mahiru, was sitting there, filling some reports - she didn't even bother look up.

"Good evening Shinya", Mahiru-Guren said. Shinya could see the smirk on her face. "It's been a while. I already thought you had forgotten me."

"Give Guren back", Shinya said, ignoring Mahiru-Guren's comment. "I need to talk to him." He took few steps closer, until he was standing right in front of the raven head, his hand clenched to fist.

"I don't know what you're talking about", Mahiru-Guren chuckled. "I'm right here. _Shinya_. You can talk with me, say anything you want to. I'll listen. After all, I'm your friend." She lifted her gaze and stared at Shinya, cold smile on her face (or Guren's face, but Shinya identified him now as Mahiru). If it weren't for the red eyes, Shinya might have believed her.

"This'll probably be the last time we're going to talk", Shinya stated. "So, if you could, _please_ let me talk to _Guren._ I would like to say goodbye to him, Mahiru." Mahiru-Guren's smile faltered a little when Shinya mentioned the demon's name.

"Just talk", Mahiru-Guren sighed, leaning back on her (or Guren's) chair. "He'll hear you."

"But I want to talk with him."

Mahiru-Guren smirked, red eyes glimmering evilly. "That's not possible at the moment, Shinya."

Shinya knew she was telling the truth, and he really had no other choice. This was the last moment for him to talk with Guren - tomorrow he would leave to Ikebukuro, and Shinya was quite sure he would never meet Guren again. It was a suicide mission after all - and the last mission like that ended badly. Guren was now possessed and Kureto the head of JIDA. Well, all that could go wrong in this mission was Shinya and his squad dying.

He snorted. "Fine. I don't really know does Guren really hear me, but I just want to say goodbye", Shinya said, taking a deep breath in. Mahiru-Guren tilted her head a little. "I'm leaving to Ikebukuro tomorrow, and both of you probably know, that vampires control that part of Tokyo. It's just a small mission, me and four others will be there to do some research… but it could end badly. So, I wanted to say goodbye to my friend. Hopefully you hear me now, Guren. Because if you don't, I'll come back from the grave to hunt you down." Shinya smiled at the raven and Mahiru-Guren answered him with a slight chuckle.

"That would be something I'd like to see", she said.

"Well, you did exactly that, didn't you", Shinya said coldly, a smile still on his face. "You died, but then you came back - just to make Guren's life miserable."

"Jealous?"

Shinya laughed. "Maybe a little. I did waste lot of my time in order to make his life a little more interesting", Shinya chuckled. "And it was worth it. You hear me, Guren?"

Mahiru-Guren answered by laughing. But it didn't seem real, there was something more in those red eyes. Regret? Sadness? Maybe a little bit of both. Shinya wasn't sure why. Maybe Guren did hear him.

The thought of that made him smirk. _If you feel at least a little bit guilty for leaving me, you deserve it,_ he thought. _If I die - would you cry for me?_ Okay, now Shinya was just being desperate.

He sighed and started to make his leave. "I wont bother you anymore, Mahiru. And Guren too. I really hoped, that you'd wake up within six months, but guess I was wrong." Shinya walked to the door and opened it, looking once behind his back. Mahiru-Guren was staring at him, no smile on her face. Shinya smiled inwardly.

He stared back at his friend, feeling very sad. He had come to say goodbye, wishing for Guren to wake up - even if it would've been just a moment. A moment between the two of them, without Mahiru. Maybe Shinya had wished for too much. He was smiling again - but he knew it was a pathetic smile, a sad one. Shinya felt like crying and begging, but he didn't show that to Mahiru.

"Well, goodbye Guren", he said. "Please, wake up soon. There are people who need you. After all, you promised not to let your family die, didn't you?" Mahiru-Guren opened her mouth to answer, but Shinya didn't stay to listen. He left and closed the door after him.

When he reached his own room, Shinya let the tears fall.

When the night came, he cried himself to sleep.

And when the morning sun rose, he left.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Shinoa's pov:

There was definitely something bad going on at Shibuya, they all agreed to that. The JIDA had been fighting with the vampires lot more than usually, and the fights always ended badly - both sides lost many men and the places where they fought were completely destroyed. Soon enough, there would be no place for them to be live. The whole Japan would be destroyed - even the whole world.

Shinoa wanted to go back to Shibuya, just to talk sense to her brother - but she knew no one would never listen to her. Not now, when they had been declared as betrayers. They couldn't go back, no matter what. Only if they could get strong enough, then maybe they would have a chance to beat Kureto… But there was Lt. colonel Ichinose as well. Yu wanted to save him, and Makoto wanted to kill Ichinose and Kureto. And probably anyone who followed them. Shinoa personally wanted only peace - she wanted the war to stop and she wished for the JIDA to be normal again.

Shinoa always acted easygoing, but truly, she worried a lot. She was scared that the JIDA and the vampires would find them, she was scared that they wouldn't see tomorrow and she was scared for the future. Shinoa also worried about the people they had left behind. She was worried about her older brother, Shinya. The silver haired major general had been the only one in the Hiragi-family that cared for Shinoa. Shinya had always played with her, been nice to her and taken care of her. Even though, Shinoa was nothing big.

Even though, Shinya was lot more stronger than she.

Shinoa had never been like her older sister Mahiru or older brother Kureto, but Shinya didn't care. He had loved Shinoa like a normal brother would. The silver head was adopted, and so, both Mahiru and Kureto looked down on him. So, maybe that was the reason he was so nice to Shinoa. After all, they had been the same - outsiders. Shinya wasn't weak like Shinoa, but he was adopted and he didn't submit to Kureto like he should've.

That was one of the biggest reasons Shinoa loved Shinya more than Kureto - actually, she didn't care for Kureto at all. Nor for her father or Seishirou. Mahiru… she had been Shinoa's only sister, and of course, she had looked up to her. But now, she didn't like her at all. Mahiru had taken control of Lt. colonel Ichinose, who was important to Shinoa's friend, Yu.

She would never forgive Mahiru for hurting her family.

But what could she do? Neither Yu or she were strong enough to defeat Kureto or Mahiru. They had Mika at their side now, but the blonde vampire wasn't enough to defeat the whole JIDA. Sure, Mika was strong and a good addition to their group, but they were still too weak to challenge Kureto.

"Shinoa, what's wrong?"

Shinoa was now sitting outside of the hideout, where she and her friends had taken place after the battle in Nagoya. It was early morning, the sun was rising and the air was still quite cold. Shinoa guessed that it would rain today.

"Hey?" Yu asked, when she didn't answer.

Shinoa looked behind her, and saw her raven haired friend standing there, a worried look in his green eyes. She smiled at him.

"Ahaha, Yu-kun", she said. "Are you worried about me?"

Yu smiled. "Of course, but it seems that you're just fine. So, what were you thinking?" He sat down next to her and played with his fingers. Shinoa smiled and turned to look at the rising sun.

"I'm worried about my older brother", she answered.

"Kureto?" Yu asked, surprised.

Shinoa chuckled. "Not him, you idiot. I was talking about Shinya - you do remember him? The guy who was with Lt. colonel Ichinose… tall with blue eyes, silver hair…?"

"Yes, I do remember Shinya-san. The sniper", Yu said, looking little annoyed. "I didn't know he was your older brother."

"We're not related by blood, Shi-nii was adopted to the Hiragi-family when he was young", Shinoa told Yu. "He's the only one in the whole family who cared for me. I'm scared… what if Kureto has killed him too? I couldn't bear to lose him too."

To Shinoa's surprise, Yu smiled gently and patted her on the head, standing up. "I have to go, before the demon takes over. But, don't worry about Shinya-san. He's strong, Kureto wont be able to kill him. And I'm sure he can take care of himself." Yu was going back inside the hideout. Shinoa looked at his back, little surprised. Yu turned to look at her, a grin on his face.

"We'll save him and Guren - that's for sure."

Shinoa found herself smiling.

"Yes, indeed we will."

Yu disappeared inside and Shinoa was left alone. The morning wind was fresh and cold, blowing against her face, making her hair flow in the air. Shinoa looked at the sun, finding new hope inside of her.

Maybe they had a chance after all.

 _End of chapter 1_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	2. Chapter 2

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**  
_

Shinya's pov:

Shinya was meeting his old squad outside of the walls of Shibuya. The sun was still rising and the wind was pretty cold, it was the early spring after all. He was feeling little tired and his eyes hurt a little (well, he had cried a lot). Shinya just hoped that vampires wouldn't bother attacking them now, since he would be pretty useless.

Shinya was already standing at the meeting place, waiting for his old squad to arrive. It had been few years since they last saw each other and went on a mission together. He had been busy as a major general, and if he left to somewhere, he went with Guren or with Kureto. Last time he was in a mission with his old squad… it had been about six years ago, when they had gone to eliminate two nobles.

The first one to arrive was Airi Katagiri, a blonde woman, around Shinya's age. She had dark grey eyes and pale yet smooth skin. Airi was quite beautiful, and strong. Her weapon was a combat knife, and she specialized in close-combat of course. Her long blonde hair was now tied to a tight ponytail, and she had a serious look in her stormy eyes. But when she saw Shinya, a small smile formed on her lips. Airi had always been a serious person - very much like Mito, but she was also very caring. She was strong and stubborn, her close-combat skills almost in the level of Guren. But in long-range fights Airi was pretty much useless.

"Shinya!" Airi yelled as she closed in. Shinya was just about to answer when the blonde jumped on him, hugging him tightly. "It's good to see you!"

Shinya chuckled and hugged the woman back. "It's good to see you as well, Airi-san", he said as the woman freed him from the hug. They looked at each other for a while, both probably having stupid smiles on their face. Then Shinya started talking. "You look as stunning as ever, Airi. And you've let your hair grow! Ahaha, it looks good on you."

Airi blushed a little. "You look good too… Wait, what I'm saying?!" Her blush darkened and Shinya laughed. "You've let your hair grow as well, Shinya! Soon, someone will mistake you as a woman!"

"Ahaha ~! That hurts, Airi-san", Shinya said, acting like her words would've hurt him. Truth was - Airi was always harsh with her words, especially when it came to Shinya. But was he any different?

"I wasn't joking", the blonde woman stated, but the grin on her face told the opposite. She then hugged Shinya again. The silver head didn't stop her, Airi's warmth felt nice after all the loneliness. It was good to know that there were still people who care for someone like him. "I've missed you, Shinya", Airi muttered against his chest. She said something more, but Shinya couldn't hear her.

"Excuse me?" he asked, looking down at the blonde.

Airi sighed and freed Shinya, refusing to look at him for some reason. There was a dark blush on her face.

"It was nothing important", she answered.

"Oh! Shinya-sama! Airi-san!" a familiar voice yelled suddenly. Both Shinya and Airi turned to look at the talker. Two people were closing in, one waving like a madman and one following, bored look on his face.

Shinya smiled. "Hachirou! Hibiki! Long time no see!" he yelled at the two men.

Hachirou and Hibiki Nakai were twin brothers, who shared the same painful past. Their family had been killed right in front of them when the vampires and the virus took over the world. After that, like many other men, they wanted revenge and joined the JIDA.

Both of the twins had brown hair, white skin and dark green eyes, but that was all they had in common. Hachirou was tall and noisy, always talking and bragging about something. Hibiki was short, calm and quiet and he always listened to everyone. Hachirou was good at close and midrange-combat and Hibiki in long-range battles. And that's why they were such a good team. Both Hachirou and Hibiki would always watch each others backs and make sure no one could mess up the mission. Shinya trusted both of them to be always by his side.

The two reached Shinya and Airi, Hachirou grabbing Airi into a tight hug. Shinya and Hibiki watched them, Shinya having an amused smile on his face.

"Seems like Hachirou hasn't changed", he said to Hibiki. "What about you? You haven't grown an inch." Hibiki gave him an annoyed glance and Shinya chuckled.

"We're pretty much the same, but we have grown stronger", Hibiki answered, his voice very steady and low. "Hachi is still the same idiot as before."

"What did you say, Hibiki?!" his twin brother yelled, when he heard Hibiki's words. Shinya laughed.

"Seems so."

"Shinya-sama, why are siding with him?" Hachirou asked, looking hurt. Hachirou and Goshi reminded each other a lot, Shinya pointed it out now. "Aren't we friends? You can't side with Hibiki!"

"Ahaha", Shinya chuckled, ignoring Hachirou's comment. The taller of the twins let Airi go and the blonde sighed in relief. Then she kicked Hachirou between the legs.

"You damn idiot! Were you trying to suffocate me?!" she yelled, looking angry as ever. "I swear I'll kill you someday! All of you!"

Both Hibiki and Shinya chuckled. Only Hachirou looked hurt and scared.

"But Airi-san… I love you so much…", the taller said. He grabbed Airi's hand and fell onto his knees. "Please, marry me and let's run away toget-"

Airi kicked Hachirou to the face and yelled: "No way in hell, you idiot!"

"Ah… I see", Hachirou mumbled under the shoe.

"Seriously", Hibiki sighed. "Would you two quit it? We're going to a serious mission, don't mess around like that."

"C'mon Hibiki-kun", Shinya said, shrugging his shoulders. "Let them have their fun. It seems that you guys haven't seen each other in a long time as well."

"True", Airi said, turning her gaze at Shinya. "Team Shinya Hiragi broke up about six years ago. While you've been stuck in Shibuya, I've been in Shinjuku and these two have been - " Airi paused and thought it for a moment. " - somewhere else, doing nothing", she then finished, nodding to herself.

"Horrible, Airi-san!" Hachirou yelled. "Me and Hibiki were at Ikebukuro!"

"So, where you there when the vampires took over?" Shinya asked.

Hachirou stopped fooling around and straightened himself, looking completely serious now. But it was Hibiki who answered Shinya's question in the end.

"Yes", the shorter one of the twins said. "It was hell, believe me."

Oh, Shinya believed and quite easily. After the battle of Nagoya, it wasn't even hard to believe into hell.

"Everyone, over here!" a cheerful yell could be heard through the ruins of Shibuya. Shinya turned his gaze towards the person yelling and saw a smiling woman, few hundred meters away from them. She was waving happily, not bothered by the cruelness of the world. A smile formed on Shinya's lips. "C'mon! We have to keep on going", the woman yelled and Shinya ran to her, the others following him.

The woman was about in the same height as Hibiki, her black hair in a two cute braids and a big and gentle smile on her face. Her skin was darker than Shinya's, like milk chocolate (okay, Shinya was hungry). The woman had beautifully glimmering dark brown eyes and she was shining warmness like the sun. Her name was Hikaru Takerou, and she was two years younger than Shinya, making her 23 years old, since Shinya was now 23 years. Hikaru was also the youngest in the whole squad. She was also the most gentlest of them all and their healer. She made sure to fix any wounds they had and she also specialized in close-combat, just so if anyone attacked the injured ones, she would be able to protect them.

"Hikaru-san", Shinya smiled at her. "Give me a hug." The two hugged tightly, Shinya taking in Hikaru's warmness. He didn't know how one person could be so much like the sun.

"I'm happy to see everyone of you is okay", Hikaru mumbled against him and then they broke up, Shinya letting Hikaru hug everyone else as well. Airi and Hikaru hugged each other the longest - they were childhood friends and very close to each other.

"Hikaru-san, looking lovely as ever." Hachirou lifted the black haired woman and spun her around, making both Shinya and Airi laugh. "It's been a while, my dear sun!"

Hikaru laughed at Hachirou. "Stop fooling around, you big teddy bear."

"Teddy bear?" Shinya laughed. "Really?"

Hachirou let Hikaru back down and the black haired woman hugged Hibiki quickly. Now, they were reunited and it was time to leave for their mission. It had been so long, that Shinya had already forgotten how easy it was for him to be around these four people. They were all part of his family - that's for sure. Shinya wasn't even sure did Guren know them, he didn't talk about his old team much.

But now, as he watched each of them chat with each other, big smiles on their faces, he wished for this mission to be a success. Kureto knew it was a suicide mission and he still send Shinya with his old squad to do it - all by themselves. They were all strong, but what Shinya had heard, was that Ikebukuro was full with vampire nobles. With only five of them, they could never wish to defeat them. There had been a hundred of them in Nagoya, and yet they had failed to kill three nobles - Shinya and Guren failing miserably. And it all ended in Guren being possessed and those hundred men that followed them all died.

Even if this was only a mission to spy on the vampires, it could go wrong in many ways. Shinya was scared for his squad. What if someone out of the five wouldn't come back? If anything, the one to die should be Shinya. It would be his fault as the team leader, if any of them would die.

Shinya wouldn't be able to live with the guilt if that would happen - and yet, he was most certain, that someone would die. They wouldn't be able to finish this mission without casualties. Shinya bit his lips and cursed Kureto _and_ Guren in his mind.

 _Shit with Kureto and Guren! I'll make them pay if someone from my squad dies!_

"Shinya?" Airi looked at him, a worried look on her face. The others turned to look at him too, concern written all over them. "What's wrong? You look sad." The blonde had grabbed his hand, and squeezed it slightly.

Shinya sighed, but put a smile on his face. "Don't worry, it's nothing", he said. Airi didn't answer, she just let go of his hand. Shinya would have to talk with her later on, since it didn't seem that she believed him. But now was not the time. He turned to look at his squad.

"Alright folks!" he said. "The Shinya Hiragi squad has been reunited! So, for the sake of the old times, let's make sure this mission will be a success."

Hachirou looked at Hikaru, a big grin on his face, and the black haired woman looked straight back, a reassuring smile on her lips. Hibiki and Airi shared excited but also worried looks. They looked little unsure of this mission - Shinya wasn't the only one who knew how risky this mission was. But they were all ready to do this.

After all, they were soldiers of the JIDA.

And it was their job to follow the orders.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Guren's pov:

The first time he met Shinya was when he was in high-school.

Guren hadn't planned their meeting out or anything, he just happened to bump on the silver head, while he was trying to make it to the first class. They both fell on their backs, Guren letting out an frustrated groan. He was ready to yell at the person who had bumped into him, but he soon found himself unable to speak, as he took a better look in the person laying on the ground.

The boy had shining silver hair, like the moon. His hair looked so smooth, that Guren wanted to touch it immediately and find out, was it as soft as it looked. It was quite long for a boy, though. The boy looked to be around the same age as Guren and he was wearing the same uniform. But again, he looked a lot like a girl. The boy had a slim waist and milky looking skin and his waist wasn't the only thing slim.

Then the boy lifted his gaze to look at Guren.

Okay, the boy was damn pretty and hot - whatever, at the moment Guren's brain hadn't been working so well. He admired the boy's body and hair. But definitely the most breathtaking in this boy was his beautiful sapphire blue eyes. They were endless like the sky and deep like the ocean. And they shimmered like two stars in the night sky. The boy looked at Guren, slightly confused, but then a smile formed on his lips - and Guren just had to admire how well the smile fit the boy.

 _Perfect._

The boy was absolutely perfect.

"I'm sorry", the boy said, his voice smooth and sweet as honey. It was like the voice of an angel, that was for sure.

Guren realized he was staring and gawking at a stranger, so he quickly turned his gaze away, a dark blush forming on his face. "It's nothing", he mumbled. "I wasn't looking, that's all."

The boy chuckled - and Guren loved it.

"Is that so." The silver head stood up, picking his schoolbag from the ground as well. Then he gave Guren his hand, a gentle smile on his face. "My name is Shinya, nice to meet you."

 _Shinya, huh? No wonder,_ Guren thought, a chuckle escaping his mouth. He took the hand the silver head was offering. Shinya's hand felt so soft and warm against Guren's cold hand.

"I'm Guren."

It didn't took long for Guren to find out, that Shinya was a Hiragi. It made him wonder - how could an angel like Shinya be part of the family of demons? But, after learning who Shinya really was, Guren did his best to stay away from him. And soon enough he fell in love with an another Hiragi - Hiragi Mahiru.

Mahiru was nothing like Shinya. She was like fire, her love was passionate and burning, taking everything with it. But Guren loved her, despite all of that. Mahiru was like a goddess, she was beautiful and wise, and very outgoing. But Mahiru had her dark side as well. Something in her interested Guren, and he stayed with her.

Then he found out, that Shinya was her fiancé and the two were supposed to marry. At the time, he wanted to beat the crap out of the blue eyed angel for trying to steal Mahiru away from him. But Guren knew he could never hurt Shinya. And Shinya told them, that he didn't want Mahiru like that. He was jealous of Guren, but only because Shinya didn't know what it meant to love. He was jealous of Guren, because the raven knew.

Lots of things happened. Mahiru died and finished the cursed gear. After her death, Guren thought that he could never love anyone again. But then there was Shinya - the angel he had met on the first day of high-school. Shinya had stayed by his side, even when Guren had pushed him away. The silver head always came back and smiled the stupidly gentle smile of his. Shinya made Guren feel things he hadn't felt with Mahiru - like there would've been more into love than Mahiru had taught him.

Shinya was so different from Mahiru and all of the other Hiragi's. Shinya was a loving and kind person, who knew how to truly smile. He was strong despite all of that and he was loyal. Shinya was also extremely beautiful and well, the silver head also knew it and used it as his advantage. He was always teasing Guren, getting him into awkward situations.

Mahiru's love had been like fire - Shinya's love was like a warm hug, a lovely wind in the summer, something that Guren could never get enough of. Shinya felt like home and he never left Guren's side.

But Guren didn't know did Shinya love him like that. Sure, the silver head always teased Guren about it, but Guren was never able to tell was the silver head serious or not. Shinya was good at hiding his true feelings. But as long as Shinya stayed by his side, Guren was happy. Of course, he wanted more, but he would never ask for it. Because neither did Shinya.

That was also one of the sides Guren admired in the blue eyed angel. Shinya never asked for anything more - he was (or he acted like he would be) happy with what he got. He never asked for more. Guren wished he could be as humble as Shinya, but in truth he could never be.

Shinya was way too gentle and loving. Guren knew it well, and so he always feared that the silver head would get himself into trouble. He feared that someday Shinya wouldn't be standing besides him anymore.

He had once said this to the silver head, but at the time, it had sounded more like a joke. Shinya did answer him, with his usual smile, gently laughing and hugging the raven head tightly.

" _Ahaha, Guren. Are you worried about me?"_ he remembered Shinya chuckling. _"But don't worry, I'll never leave your side. We're family after all, aren't we?"_

To that, Guren hadn't answered - he had waved the silver head off like usually. But Guren hadn't realized that he had probably hurt Shinya. And only now he realized how stupid he had been. Shinya didn't know, the silver head had left without knowing.

Guren wanted to yell out that they were a family. He wanted for the silver head to stop. He had heard him. He had heard Shinya's wish. But he hadn't done anything.

And now Shinya wasn't by his side anymore.

" _But Guren",_ Mahiru's voice could be heard through the dark slumber Guren was in. It had been like that for months, Guren had been locked in his own mind, Mahiru controlling his body.

" _I'm here with you. You love me, don't you? Leave Shinya to be, soon enough he wont bother us ever again. After all, you love me and only me."_

Her laughter was like poison, and her voice like honey. Mahiru's smile was the same as always, so tempting and her hug felt so warm. Guren didn't recognize the difference of dream and reality anymore - he was stuck somewhere between. He could hear everyone, but he couldn't answer them. He could see everything, but the demon in control wouldn't let him interfere - Mahiru wouldn't let him take control. And because of that Guren had hurt Yu and Shinya. He had pushed everyone away and he was now following Kureto.

Or Kureto was now _following_ Mahiru.

" _I'll make everything okay",_ Mahiru whispered into Guren's ear. _"I'm strong, Guren. There's nothing for you to worry about anymore. With me, everything will be okay. We'll soon control everything."_

She laughed and Guren could feel how he sunk even deeper to the darkness.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Shinya's pov:

The wind felt nice against his face, as he opened the car window and let the fresh air fill the car. Hibiki was driving quite fast, after all, they had left later than planned and there were people waiting for them just outside of Ikebukuro. Shinya guessed they would be there in half an hour and within hour, they would be alone in Ikebukuro.

In the middle of vampires and monsters.

 _This is going to be fun,_ Shinya thought sarcastically, sighing loudly.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to look at the back seat. Hikaru was smiling kindly at him, a warm hand at Shinya's shoulder. Her brown eyes were glimmering in the sun light and she looked worried, but also very reassuring.

"Don't worry, Shinya-san", she said. "We've just reunited and there's lots of things we need to talk about - so it's obvious that we can't die. And you ordered us to not to fail."

"Yeah, relax man!" Hachirou said, leaning back on his seat, a wide grin on his face. "We wouldn't want to disobey orders, now would we?"

"Ahahaha, stupid Hachirou", Shinya said, smiling at the brown haired man. "I'd gladly abandon this mission, and I know you would too." He turned to look out of the window, his smile fading away. "But we all know, we can't." He knew his voice was much more quieter than before - Shinya wondered had anyone even heard him. But obviously they had.

"We'll make this mission a success", Airi said, her voice determined and her eyes serious, a storm raging in them once again. "So you wont lose your pride."

Shinya glanced at her, a small smile forming on his lips. Airi had always been very determined person, maybe even more than Guren or Mito. Thinking of Guren - if this mission would go wrong in any way, and Shinya would have to call out for reinforcements, would Shinya be able to call for Guren? Would the raven even come?

"What about us, Airi-san?" Hachirou asked. "Don't you care for our pride?"

"You don't have any, so shut up", was the blunt answer the brown haired male got from the blonde woman. Hikaru laughed at the two and Hibiki sighed.

"Quit it already", the smaller out of the twins said. Before Hachirou or Airi could start a new fight, one of the four horsemen of John appeared out of nowhere. "Shit!" Hibiki mumbled as he tried to dodge the monster. Shinya saw that the brown haired man was going to stop the car in order to kill the monster.

"Keep going!" Shinya commanded. "We have no time to stop. Pass it, I'll shoot it from inside."

"Inside the car?!" Hachirou yelled. "Are you nuts?"

Byakkomaru appeared in Shinya's hands and a small smile formed on his lips. He glanced at the backseat, winking his eye at the dumbfounded Hachirou. "Don't worry, I won't miss."

Hibiki drove past the monster and dodged its attacks at the same time, which seemed to be quite hard. Shinya removed the seatbelt and took the best stance he could take in that situation and aimed at the monsters head.

"This'll be fast. Byakkomaru, shoot. Bang", he said, feeling more confident than before. Having his demon-weapon in his hands made him feel more powerful. Shinya knew he wasn't weak, but after being so many months in prison, he had started to doubt himself. His smile widened a little. Power of his demon pulsed through him as the monster died.

" _I want more…"_

Byakkomaru's voice echoed through Shinya's mind. It was sweet as honey, but Shinya knew better than listen to it. Of course, he was quite used to his demon and so, he got well along with it, but there were times when the demon just wanted to posses him.

" _Give me more blood… kill all those monsters…",_ Byakkomaru whispered. _"We'll be stronger if you'll let me take the control… We could even save that friend of yours…"_

The rifle in Shinya's hands disappeared and he sighed loudly, closing the window. Then he sat back down and told Hibiki to drive faster. No one said anything against him as Shinya tried to forget Byakkomaru's suggestion. The demon hadn't suggested anything like this before. He knew very well that the demon was talking about Guren.

And sure, Shinya wanted to save the raven.

 _But it's not like I could really do anything, with or without my demon,_ Shinya thought bitterly. He had already realized that. His words meant nothing to Guren. The raven wouldn't hear him. _This is a fight Guren must win all by himself._

Shinya wondered could Guren actually do it. The raven relied on his friends, his so called _family_ so much, that it had been years since he had fought completely alone. Or maybe not. In Nagoya, Guren had been alone, in the middle of vampires. And look how that ended.

Now the damn idiot was possessed by his ex-lover, Mahiru.

"We're here", Hibiki suddenly said, as he stopped the car in front of the main-base right outside of Ikebukuro. The base was located in an old factory, and there were quite many men outside, guarding the place. It was quite obvious that the vampires could come and kill all of them anytime, and that they were very scared of that.

Shinya stepped out of the car and an lower-ranking officer came to him right away, followed by two other officers. All of them were armed. Shinya also noted how nervous all of them seemed to be.

"Major general Hiragi Shinya, I assume?" the first officer said. He was an older man, maybe thirty, and he looked somehow… desperate? Scared? Maybe both of them.

"That's me", Shinya said, smiling at the man. It was better act stupid than let the officer know how scared Shinya himself was. "We're here to only drop the car and get some provisions. So no worries, we'll be gone soon enough." His squad gathered around him, and the men in front of them glanced at each other nervously.

"Sir… Do you really think it's a good idea to go to Ikebukuro with only five of you?" one of them asked.

"Hmmn? Of course not", Shinya answered. "But it's an order from the lieutenant general, and I can't say no to him, now can I?"

Neither of the officers said anything to that, they only led Shinya and his squad inside the factory, where most of their provisions were kept. Hachirou disappeared somewhere to say hello to his old friends, but the taller male promised to be back outside within fifteen minutes. Hibiki said he'd take enough food for the two of them, so Shinya didn't need to worry about Hachirou.

He had quite many other things in his mind as well, so no need for an idiot like Hachi to distract him as well.

"Are you done packing?" Shinya asked from Airi and Hikaru. "Hibiki went already out to look for Hachirou, so we should keep going as well."

"We're done", Hikaru nodded.

After meeting up with Hibiki and Hachirou, they left the main-base. Shinya had planned, that they would go to the old base in the Ikebukuro, but now it seemed that they wouldn't make it before sunset. So, they needed to find a new place to stay for the first night.

The streets of Ikebukuro were quiet and empty, that was quite creepy. They could hear how the monsters roamed in the city, destroying buildings and devouring everything living that came on their way. They stayed in formation the whole time they walked, Shinya in the middle of them all.

Hikaru was walking close by him, Hachirou and Hibiki in front of them and Airi behind. The brown haired woman scanning the area, looking for monsters and a place to stay.

"Maybe if we would walk faster, we could make it to the base", Hachirou said, looking at Shinya.

Shinya had thought of that, but there was no use in hurrying. They didn't know was the base even good enough place to stay anymore. "We shouldn't hurry", he said to Hachirou. "It's better to take things slowly here. At least for now."

The brown haired man shrugged his shoulders and kept talking with Hibiki and Hikaru, now breaking their formation. Shinya wasn't going to complain - after all, he didn't sense any enemies close by. Airi walked up to him, her blonde hair flowing in the wind.

"What do you think is going to happen next?" she asked. Airi was obviously trying to start a conversation.

Shinya chuckled. "Who knows? I just hope we wouldn't have to fight right away, that'd be tiring."

Airi snorted. "Sounds just like you, Shinya. How's Guren Ichinose doing, by the way? Wasn't he the reason you left this squad? I mean, you wanted to join his squad, right?"

A sigh escaped Shinya's lips. "No, I never was part of Guren's squad. You know how the Ichinose-family hates the Hiragi-family?" Shinya mumbled and Airi nodded. "Well, Guren is no different from the rest of his family. He hated me, and even if he doesn't hate me anymore, he still dislikes me. A lot."

"Oh, so you've finally found someone who doesn't like you?" Airi chuckled. Shinya smiled at the blonde woman.

"Ahaha, that's rude, Airi-san~"

The blonde didn't have a chance to answer when they saw few vampires coming closer. They weren't nobles, lucky for them, but there were still quite many of them. Shinya reacted quickly.

"Everybody, get your weapons ready!" he commanded, Byakkomaru appearing into his hands again. "Don't break the formation!"

Hikaru backed away from Hachirou and Hibiki, until she was right next to Shinya and Airi was staying back. All of them had their cursed gears now - Airi's weapon was the combat-knife, Hibiki's a bow, Hachirou's a sword (very much like Guren's) and Hikaru's a spear that could prolong itself.

"Make sure to kill them all", Shinya said. "We don't want to let them inform about us, now do we?" He aimed at the first vampire, that was closing in with great speed. "Pierce my enemies, Byakkomaru. Bang."

 _This is going to be a long day,_ was Shinya's thought as more vampires appeared. But at least his demon seemed to enjoy the bloodshed.

 _End of chapter 2_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	3. Chapter 3

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _D/C: I don_ _'t own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

 _Chapter 3_

Shinya's pov:

It had been only three days, but he was already exhausted. They had been fighting with monsters daily - luckily there had been no vampires. Shinya's squad had been looking for the vampires' headquarters, but they had yet to find out anything. Shinya knew that Kureto wouldn't be happy if they'd return without any information. He was quite sure that his older brother wouldn't be happy if they'd return. Kureto expected for them to die.

 _I guess this is my punishment for disobeying him,_ Shinya thought, snorting to himself. _But he just had to go and get my old squad involved as well._

"There are four horsemen close by", Hibiki mumbled. They were now standing in a dark alley, eating their lunch and taking a break. Shinya got up and walked to the shorter male, and looked around the corner. Hibiki was right, about two hundred meters away from the alley, were four horsemen, looking for their prey. Obviously they had smelled them.

"Should we kill them?" Hibiki asked. "You and me can shoot them from here."

"No wait", Shinya said, narrowing his eyes. He was sure he had seen something else close by the horsemen. Yep - he was right, there was a vampire at the close by building, keeping an eye at the monsters. "We can't kill them. If we do, that vampire over there will report about us. Let's run, for now."

Hibiki noticed the vampire as well and nodded. The others had packed their things and were ready to move. Shinya's cursed gear formed in his hands. He could hear how Byakkomaru purred happily - the demon was waiting for him to continue the bloodshed.

"This way", Hikaru said, running towards the other end of the alley. "Quickly."

They followed her quietly, everyone of them on guard. Shinya didn't hear that any of the horsemen would've been following them and Byakkomaru didn't sense any vampires. They ran for two hours, moving as fast as they could without making too much noise. After a while, Shinya finally ordered them to stop and decided that it was time to find a shelter for night. Once they'd find a place to stay, three of them could go and search the area surrounding them, while two of them would stay and guard their little camp. Maybe the vampires were closer than they though - you could never really tell.

"I think this is good enough place", Hachirou said, when they found a small abandoned house, that lied in the middle of other buildings. It wasn't too small but not too big, so it was actually pretty unnoticeable. They would just have to keep it low. They were know standing in the living room - or Shinya thought that it had been a living room, now it was just a messy half-collapsed room.

"Yeah", Shinya nodded, smiling approvingly. "We'll stay here for the night. Now, Hibiki and Airi, would you like to come with me to check this area out? You never know what you can find here."

"Sure", Hibiki nodded, as he dropped his backpack on the floor. Airi sighed tiredly, but didn't complain. Shinya sweat dropped, feeling little guilty.

"I'm sorry. I know you're all tired, but we wouldn't want to be killed tonight, now do we?" he said, smiling apologetically.

"We know, don't apologize", Airi said, as she walked past him to the front door. "And you must be as tired as we are."

"What? No way, I'm always ready to go~", Shinya teased, when he went after her. Hibiki followed them, shaking his head to himself. "This is nothing compared to Nagoya, it's actually pretty peaceful here. And at least we can sleep a little here." Shinya stopped outside the house and looked up to the sky. The sun was starting to set already, painting the sky beautiful orange and pink. There was a nice cool wind blowing around them, and Shinya couldn't help but think, that the world was breathtakingly beautiful - even at its collapsing point.

"I suppose you're right", Airi nodded. "Let's keep going now. I do want to sleep a little." Shinya chuckled, but agreed to get going. Together the three of them searched through the whole area they were in. They probably walked over three miles, and when they finally decided to go back, above them were already glimmering hundreds of stars and the moon.

"Aww~, we didn't find anything", Shinya sighed loudly. He could already see the house ahead of them, all lights turned off. He still knew that both Hikaru and Hachirou were awake - the two of them wouldn't be so stupid as sleep without someone guarding the place.

"That's really too bad", Hibiki mumbled. "But it's strange that we didn't find any horsemen either. Or, no one attacked us. We were out in the open for about two hours."

Shinya quieted down to think it. Hibiki was right, it had been strange that no one had attacked them. They hadn't seen any horsemen in this area of the city, but what Shinya had learned, was that the horsemen were everywhere. There was definitely something wrong.

He stopped to look behind himself, but Shinya saw nothing but collapsed buildings and the nature, that was taking over the land. He saw no movements, which made him even more uncomfortable.

"Shinya? What's wrong?" Airi asked, worry in her voice. Shinya turned to look at her, frowning worriedly.

"Something's not right", he bluntly said. "It shouldn't be this quiet."

Both Airi and Hibiki changed worried looks between each other, and then they as well started to get nervous. Hibiki glanced around himself, even the sky, but he didn't seem to see nothing. It was actually little too dark for that already.

"We should go inside", Airi said. "Hachirou and Hikaru are already waiting for us, anyway. I think you're just sleepy, Shinya. Or little paranoid, but that's just normal in this world. The battle of Nagoya was hard and bloody, we know it. But you should really leave it behind already."

Shinya shook his head a little. "I'm not joking, Airi. There's definitely something wrong. But you're right, we should get inside now." He then smiled, but it was a weak and fake smile, but Airi bought it anyway. They continued their way to towards the house. At the door, Shinya gave the destroyed world a final glance, before stepping inside the darkness.

And little too late, Shinya realized his mistake.

The fact that there had been no horsemen around them, was because all of them had been already _killed._ By vampires. But the whole time, the house had been more suspicious. It had been too quiet - especially knowing Hachirou and Hikaru, who liked to make noise. It had been little too perfect as a hiding place. And there had been no light. No warmness. Humans liked light and warmness, Shinya should've known that. He should've known that something had happened - he should've guessed that the vampires knew.

And it was all his fault. His fault that everything went wrong.

The second the door closed behind Shinya, all his senses started to scream danger and Byakkomaru started to growl loudly inside his mind. _Oh shi-_ But Shinya was too slow. He felt how a cold hand pressed on his throat threw him against the wall, making it hard for him to breath. At first Shinya saw black, but when his eyesight came back, he saw a smirking vampire in front of him. It was a noble, and behind it were standing three other nobles and two normal vampires. The noble holding Shinya against the wall was a tall male vampire, with black short hair and dark, blood red eyes. His skin was sickly white, but that was just normal to vampires - or to some of them. Shinya saw his whole squad on the floor, but all of them seemed to be alive. At least Hibiki and Airi were, both of them looking at Shinya in fear, but neither of them were capable of doing anything - since two of the nobles were holding them down roughly.

Shinya had never seen these nobles, so he guessed that they were either really high-ranking or just low-ranking nobles. Either way, they were strong and Shinya knew that he didn't have a chance against them.

"Are you the one in lead?" the noble strangling Shinya asked. Shinya smiled coldly, trying to remove the hand from his throat.

"What if I am?" he asked. "Have you been waiting for me? That's kind of sweet - from someone so heartless, I suppose."

The vampire narrowed his cold grey eyes at Shinya, an angry growl escaping his lips. "You want me to kill you now?" he growled.

"Isn't that what you came here to do?" Shinya hissed back. That made the vampire laugh.

"Sure, we came here to eliminate you. You did do good job - staying hidden from us for three whole days, even though we control this area", he answered. "But coming this close to our base was stupid, even from you humans. On the second you stepped inside this house, we knew about you. And when the three of you left, we of course made a move. We had to be careful, since you humans have those troublesome cursed gears with you. And you've been playing with the Seraphs." The vampire moved his hand from Shinya's throat to his face, one finger close to Shinya's left eye, the nail digging deep in his otherwise perfect pale face. "Aren't you pretty for a human - and for a man too."

 _You fucker,_ what was Shinya thought, disgusted by the vampire's actions. A small drop of blood ran down his cheek, when the nail finally pierced his skin. He saw how the vampire took a deep breath in, the smell of blood probably making him hungry.

"We knocked out your men the way they wouldn't bleed", he said. "So we wouldn't accidentally drink them dry. Lucky you, right? You seem to be a high-ranking officer in the damn demon army of yours. Would you like to give us some information? I bet you have plenty of it."

"I'd rather die", Shinya answered, kicking the noble. It didn't make much of a difference, but at least the noble let go of him, letting Shinya breath little better. But it also made the noble angry, because soon Shinya found himself being pinned against the man, the vampires dangerously sharp teeth right on his neck. Fear struck through Shinya, and he shivered under the warm and disgusting breath. It wouldn't be the first time someone would bite him - but Shinya had always survived it. Now it seemed that he was going to die. Like he just said himself.

"Scared now?" the vampire muttered. "I could kill you less than a second. Or maybe I should do it slowly. And make your subordinates watch it." Shinya stared past the vampire, straight into Airi's wide eyes. The blonde woman had tears in her eyes, and Shinya felt more guilty than ever.

They were good as dead. All of them.

"You smell great", the noble whispered. "Lavender and little bit of cherries, cinnamon too… but the blood smells definitely the best. A little taste wouldn't harm you, now would it…?" Shinya felt a slimy tongue lick his carotid artery, and he felt how his own pulse got faster. Shinya could hardly stop himself from shaking in fear. And that seemed to make the noble even more excited. "This'll be fun~."

"Stop it, Zero", one of the other nobles said, the one who was female. Her hair was dark green and her eyes lighter red. She seemed to be the one in control, despite how arrogant the noble holding onto Shinya acted. Zero backed off right away, but his hand was still holding onto Shinya's left wrist.

"We're taking all of them to the base. The silver haired one is the leader and judging from his uniform, he really is a high-ranking officer. Don't even try to drink blood from him", the woman continued. "You'll end up drinking him dry and then we have only these humans. The are only good as hostages, nothing more."

"Yes, ma'am", Zero sighed in defeat, but Shinya saw the irritated look on his eyes. _He has no respect for his superior_ s, Shinya thought. _Maybe I could use that as my advantage…?_

"Knock the rest of them out", the woman ordered. "We don't want them to know the exact location of our base."

Shinya watched in horror as the two lower-ranking vampires knocked both Hibiki and Airi out cold-bloodedly. He felt how Zero's piercing gaze stared at him, ready to do the same to him. Shinya slowly turned to look at the vampire noble, probably looking as scared as he felt. Zero was smirking coldly, raising his hand in order to hit Shinya.

Shinya pressed his eyes shut, fearing for the next strike. In his mind, he begged for help from a certain raven haired man.

Pain ran through his head, and Shinya felt how his legs betrayed him. He slowly sunk into the cold darkness, his last thought running back to his so-called friend, who was probably now sitting in his office all alone, _safe_.

 _Guren, please…! Don't let us die now!_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Guren's pov:

He felt a hand on his shoulder, that shook him a little, like it would've intended to wake him up. And it did, for a moment.

Guren jolted awake from his slumber, and realized that he was sitting in his own office, the lights turned on and unfinished reports all over his desk. The clock showed half past twelve at night. And for the first time in a while, Guren could tell that he was the one in control, not Mahiru.

 _Wha- what happened?_

He touched his shoulder, still feeling the touch he had felt just moments ago. It was like Shinya would've been standing behind him, patting his shoulder like usually when he wanted Guren to look at him, a teasing smile on his lips. Or it had felt like it, because when Guren turned to look behind himself, he saw nothing and the warm presence of his friend was gone as well. It was like it hadn't been there in the first place.

Guren groaned loudly, guessing that he had just been dreaming. He sighed and leaned back on his chair, staring the ceiling. He knew he was the one in control, but he didn't know what to do. He knew Shinya had left somewhere, and that his squad was locked up in a prison. And it wasn't like he could do much.

Or maybe he could…?

Guren closed his eyes for a moment, and imagined Shinya in front of him. The silver haired man was smiling in his mind, his sapphire blue eyes glimmering in the light. It was true, Shinya looked like an angel. In his mind, Shinya was fine. The silver haired man was waving at him happily, and Guren smiled peacefully.

If it just could be real.

Guren opened his eyes, the smile disappearing from his face. Guren didn't exactly know where Shinya was, all he could tell was that the silver haired man was gone. And so was his squad and Yu. All because of Guren…

That made the raven grit his teeth together. No, it wasn't all his fault. Kureto and Mahiru were supposed to take part of the blame as well. But for some reason, Mahiru wasn't know bothering him. He couldn't feel her presence or hear her voice in side his head. And it felt great to be free.

And this was also Guren's chance.

The raven haired man stood up and took his sword. He wouldn't go and do something stupid like fight Kureto - because Guren wouldn't be able to win that monster without his cursed gear, and he certainly wouldn't relay on his demon - but there was something he needed to do, before Mahiru would take over him again.

He would save his squad and make them find Yu and the others who escaped. Maybe he would also tell them to find Shinya.

Guren stepped out of his office and started to make his way towards the prison. He was greeted by almost everyone, and he answered like he normally did, nothing big so he wouldn't accidentally draw too much attention to himself. When he finally reached the prison, he ordered all of the guards to leave for a moment - his excuse being that he wanted to have a private chat with his squad. Luckily, it seemed that the guards believed him, or they were just too scared to say anything against him.

The prison was a dull and dark place, and almost every cell was empty. The vampires they captured were kept in different place or in laboratories, where Kureto performed sick tests on them. In the two last cells, Guren saw his old squad. Goshi was alone in his cell, while Mito, Sayuri and Shigure shared the same cell. He saw how Goshi raised his head when he heard Guren coming closer, but the light brown haired man lowered his gaze almost right away. Guren heard Mito snort and Shigure sigh. Sayuri was the only one who stayed quiet, her eyes fixated on Guren, worry glimmering in them.

 _Well, they're pissed,_ was Guren's first thought when he saw his squad. It had been quite a while since they last saw each other, and Guren couldn't blame them for being angry at him - honestly, he deserved it.

"It's night and all of you are still awake", Guren said. "Don't you feel tired?"

Mito let out an angry growl. "What about you, _demon_? Feeling tired of being such an asshole all the time? Maybe you came here to apologize?"

"Mito", Sayuri said, apologetic and nervous smile on her lips. "Please, don't be so harsh."

"And you stop being so kind!" Mito retorted. "He doesn't deserve any kindness, especially from you!"

"Mito's right", Guren said. "You have no reason to be kind towards me, Sayuri." Silent fell upon the prison, when Guren's whole squad turned to look at him in surprise. The raven haired man sighed and brushed his hair with his hand.

Goshi stood up from the floor and walked to the bars separating him and Guren. The light brown haired man pointed one of his fingers at Guren. "Yo- you… Mahiru's not the one in control now, is she?" Goshi stuttered out. Guren grinned smugly.

"It's me alright", he said.

Sayuri sighed in relief. "Guren", she said. "I'm so glad you're back."

"How do we know it's you and not _her_?" Mito asked, still sounding angry.

"I don't know", Guren answered. "Mahiru's always been there, so she knows everything. But right now I… I need to apologize." He bowed his head. "I'm very sorry." Guren stayed like that for a good moment, before he straightened himself. He felt guilty and sad because it didn't seem that his squad was going to forgive him - and Guren could understand that - but he had a reason to be there. Mito was staring at him, and so were the others. All of them had surprised looks on their faces, and that made Guren wonder had he done something wrong.

"Umn…? What's wrong?" he asked.

Mito was the first one to speak. "Gu- Guren…", she stuttered, a small blush forming on her face. "Yo- you j- j- just apologized?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Yes, I did. Because I owe you at least that much", Guren nodded. "Why?"

Mito took few steps back, turning her gaze at Shigure, who had already recovered from her shock, and was now looking dull as ever. "Shigure! It's not him!" Mito whisper-yelled. "The real Guren would never apologize to us like that! And he even bowed his head!"

"Mito's right", Goshi muttered. "It can't be Guren…"

"But Mahiru wouldn't do something like that either", Sayuri pointed out. All of the four turned their attentions back to Guren, everyone seeming slightly nervous.

"Who are you?!" Mito and Goshi yelled in unison.

Guren felt a vein pop in his head. "It's me you idiots!" he yelled angrily. "What the hell is that even supposed to mean?! Don't look so freaking surprised!" Goshi started to laugh and Mito sighed. Guren narrowed his eyes at them - if they wouldn't be in prison, he would've already kicked them for disrespecting him this much.

"It's him, alright", Goshi said between the chuckles. "Missed you, pal. How have you been? Has Mahiru been a bitch?"

"Yeah, but that's Mahiru for you", Guren answered. A genuine smile formed on his lips. Seemed that his squad was okay at least. Now, Guren guessed that he didn't have all that much time. He still needed to get his squad safely out of JIDA's headquarters.

"Listen, we don't have much time", Guren said. "I need to get you guys out, before Mahiru takes over me again."

"Out? You mean out of prison and out of Shibuya?" Sayuri asked.

Guren nodded. "Yes. I can't follow you, since Mahiru wont leave Kureto's side. But you have to get out, and find Yu and his squad. That kid is way too stubborn to be dead." Sayuri and Shigure changed worried looks.

"Then, get us out", Mito bluntly said. "And I don't give a fuck about Mahiru - you're coming with us."

Guren smiled. "It would be nice to leave this place, but I can't do it. Someone has to stay behind and make sure that Kureto doesn't destroy humanity instead of saving it. Even though, our ways are different, we have the same goal. Humans need to survive, and vampires need to die. Or at least disappear", Guren said. "But the problem is, that they've gotten stronger. Even if we are getting stronger as well, they're just too fast. The Seraphs are our only chance of winning. But Kureto is still taking things too far… or should I say Mahiru is."

"Is she controlling the lieutenant general and the general?" Goshi asked.

"Yeah", Guren nodded. "And that's why I need to get you out." He had the keys needed to open the cell doors, so it was easy. But then he needed to break the seals that sealed his squads cursed gears - without them they wouldn't be able to survive outside Shibuya. Of course, easier said than done, but Guren had his ways.

"So, now that we're out", Mito said once she had stepped out of the cell. "Get us our uniforms and weapons."

"Aren't you bossy", Guren chuckled. "But sure, follow me. The uniforms are easy to get, but I think I can get the weapons before the sun rises."

"That's good to hear", Shigure said, talking for the first time. "And you want us to find Hyakuya Yuchirou and the rest of those who survived the Nagoya battle? Do you think that they're still on our side, after what they saw."

Guren had thought about it. "Yu wont betray me", he ended up responding. "And his friends wont betray him." They stepped out of the prison, and just like Guren had thought, the hallways were empty. Because he had ordered the guards away for now, it wasn't really a problem to find the uniforms for his squad. But soon enough Kureto would notice it, and because of that, they had to be quick.

Guren stayed outside of the changing rooms, while his squad changed their clothes, guarding the hallways. Luckily for them, it was night, so there weren't many people outside either. Guren could easily fool the lower-ranking officers and they didn't even recognize his squad, especially when they had hats that shadowed their faces.

"Go to the gates", Guren said to his squad. "I need to go and open those seals, so you can get your weapons."

"Are you sure you can go alone?" Goshi asked worriedly.

"I'll be just fine. And it's not so suspicious if I go alone. People could recognize you." He turned around and started to walk towards the Hiragi-family's building. Kureto did this a lot - he sealed others cursed gears to see how they affected the demons within the weapons. The cruel Hiragi had all of the keys to open the seals just next to his office - it would be pain in the ass to get through the guy, but Guren was ready to do this. Especially now that his squad had agreed on finding Yu.

 _I still need to ask about Shinya. Maybe they know more about the mission he left to complete,_ Guren thought. _I need them to find Shinya… just so I know he's safe._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

It hadn't been so hard as Guren had thought. There had been only two guards, that Guren had easily knocked out (since they first refused to let him through). Luckily Kureto hadn't been in his office, the guy had gone to sleep already. It was really, _really_ lucky that Mahiru's grip of Guren had slipped at night. But Guren had yet to find out how it was possible, since it hadn't happened ever before. It wasn't because Mahiru was sleeping, now was it…?

Anyway, now Guren was making his way towards the gates. It had been about an hour and half since he got his body back, and he seriously had no idea how much time he had. A good sign was probably the fact that he still couldn't feel Mahiru close at all. It was like his sword would've been completely empty.

 _But a sword without a demon is good as nothing in this world,_ Guren thought bitterly. He was already very close to the gates and he already saw his squad hanging around a dark corner. He waved at them, and soon enough, they were together again.

"Your weapons", Guren said. "Here."

"Finally", Mito sighed as she got her gloves back. "Thank you, Guren. I'm glad you're back."

Guren grinned at the dark red haired woman. "I'm glad about that too, and I hope that I'd at least get a day off from Mahiru. It would be great."

"But why didn't you tell us?" Shigure suddenly asked. "Aren't we your squad? Why didn't you tell about Mahiru - you know that we would've understood it."

"Really now?" Guren muttered, looking down at the ground. "I had - no, I _have_ a demon of my ex-lover inside my sword. She wants to control the whole world together with vampires. She betrayed not only her family, but us as well. She's no longer the Mahiru we knew. She's just a demon… I could never bring myself to say it aloud. And it was all probably because she told me not to, and I believed that I was the one in control." Guren chuckled bitterly. "It was really stupid of me. Mahiru was probably making me think that way the whole time."

"Guren…", Sayuri whispered, her eyes filled with sadness and unspoken feelings. But Guren decided to wave it off - much like Shinya always did. And thinking of Shinya…

"Do you guys know what happened to Shinya?" Guren asked.

"Shinya-sama?" Goshi repeated. "Oh yeah - Kureto freed him from prison about three weeks ago. Four days ago Shinya-sama left to Ikebukuro."

"Ikebukuro? That place is controlled by the vampires!" Guren said, shocked to hear this. He did remember hearing Shinya's voice say something about goodbyes and a mission, but Guren had been controlled by Mahiru at the time and so, everything was just a big blur to him. "Why would Kureto send him there?"

"You tell us", Mito said. "Shinya came to say goodbye before he left, very early in the morning. He didn't stay long - all he said was to believe into you and that he'll miss us. Guess he knew that the mission in Ikebukuro was going to be his last one."

 _Believe into me…?_

Then Guren remembered Shinya's words the night before he left.

" _Please, wake up soon. There are people who need you. After all, you promised not to let your family die, didn't you?"_

Yes, he had. And remembering Shinya's words and the sad smile the silver haired man had given him that night… it made him so very pissed. Angry at Mahiru for not letting him stop Shinya. He felt angry at Kureto, who had send Shinya to Ikebukuro. And he felt anger towards Shinya, who had dared to say _goodbye_ to _him._

He felt angry and guilty.

"What do you want us to do?" Goshi asked.

Guren looked up to him in surprise. "…Huh?"

"I asked: what do you want us to do? Do you want us to save Shinya-sama, because we'll do it if you want", Goshi said again, a warm smile on his face. But it turned soon to a smug grin. "After all, we wouldn't want Guren to lose his precious angel, now would we…?"

Guren gritted his teeth together and he was barely able to hold off a punch. "You damn bastard…", he hissed to Goshi. "Shut the fuck up, will you?" But Goshi was right - Guren didn't want to lose Shinya and the silver haired man was an angel to him.

"It would ne nice if you guys could check is he alright", Guren ended up saying. As they had been talking, they had walked to the gate, and Guren had ordered it to be opened. Now they were standing outside and the clock was two am. The sun was still nowhere to be seen, which was a good thing. His squad could get away now. "I don't want you to get killed, so don't do anything reckless."

"Yes sir", Goshi nodded. "And the reckless one was always you, Guren. It's too bad that you wont come, but I'm guessing that we really don't have any other choice now. We have a time limit."

"Yeah", Guren sighed. "It's only the matter of time until Mahiru takes over me again. And I've yet to find a way to stop her." But then he smiled. "But I will find a way. Then I can come and find you."

"Sounds good to me", Sayuri nodded, smiling happily. "So, first we find Yu and the others, and then we'll look for Shinya-sama."

"If something has happened to Shinya… Please, find a way to inform me", Guren said. "I need to know if anything bad has happened. At least then I'd have one more reason to kick Kureto's ass."

They walked down the wall, until they were standing in the solid grown, that was covered in shadows. Guren felt little uneasy out there, without the help of his cursed gear. But at least now he had his squad around him.

"Yeah, sure", Mito nodded. "We'll inform you anyway, when we find Shinya. And then we'll help you to kick Kureto's ass. I think Shinya would enjoy it too."

 _I don't know about that…_ Guren thought, nervous grin on his face. He was just about to dismiss his squad, when he suddenly felt a warm presence right next to him. A very familiar warm presence. And it didn't seem that he was the only one who noticed it. Guren turned his gaze to his left at the same time everyone else did… and he saw a white tiger laying on the ground next to him.

The tiger looked relaxed, and it was glowing in the dark night like a single candle. Except, this light was light blue, like Shinya's eyes.

"What is that?" Mito gasped.

The tiger let out a growl and turned it's breathtaking sapphire blue eyes to Guren.

"Wait… don't tell me", Guren mumbled. "Byakkomaru?!"

The tiger purred sweetly, but it's form started to crumble. It got up from the ground and pushed its head against Guren's waist, as it easily reached it. Guren and the others were pretty dumbfounded by the appearance of Shinya's demon.

"What is it doing here?" Shigure asked.

" _You're my masters friend… the one who is having troubles with his demon",_ the tiger purred with a strong voice.

"Yeah?" Guren asked.

" _It seems that you're in the control now… then, before my powers run out, there's something you might want to know",_ the tiger continued. It was already losing its glow and form, only the head to be seen now. _"My master… is in trouble. Big trouble. The vampires… found us…"_

"The vampires? In Ikebukuro?!" Guren repeated. The tiger was almost completely gone and he had so many questions now! "Is Shinya ok-"

" _Dying…"_

After that the tiger was gone, and it was like it would have never been there in the first place. Guren almost lost his balance, but luckily Goshi was there to keep him up.

"Guren…"

"Shinya is… dying?" Guren repeated to himself, when the horror of the thought struck him.

"Maybe we should go straight to Ikebukuro", Mito said nervously. "It seems that Shinya is in trouble."

"But what if it's a trap?" Shigure asked. "Byakkomaru is a demon, after all. And we can't possibly do anything without Hyakuya Yuchirou and his squad."

Guren didn't know what to say, but luckily, someone made it before he did.

"Well, luckily we are here", a familiar voice said close by. Everyone's attention shot to the direction where the voice had come from. It took a moment for Guren to see the people n the dark, but when he did, he was left wordless again.

He saw seven people standing there, and the person in the lead had a very familiar messy raven hair and big green eyes. And that damn stupid, smug smirk.

After seeing that annoying smirk, Guren found his voice again.

"Yu?!"

 _End of chapter 3_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	4. Chapter 4

Owari no Seraph: The Light that Disappeared

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

 _Chapter 4_

Shinya's pov:

It was a beautiful morning. Shinya was just waking up, like he always did, the silver haired girl right next to him. Last night had been a storm and the girl was scared of storms, so she had come to Shinya - instead of their parents, which already told a lot to the silver haired boy. It seemed that the girl loved him a little more than their parents. Inwardly, Shinya felt proud because of that.

They were in the same age, but Shinya was always the one to protect them. But it wasn't like he would've needed to do much. Their father was a strong man who protected them from harm. Their mother was a wise woman who always knew what to do. Their family was rich and lived far away from the troubles of the cities.

A perfect family, a perfect life.

Shinya slowly got up from his bed, yawning loudly. The clock was 8 am, so it was a good time to wake up and go to make some breakfast. They had lots of servants, but it was more fun to help them than watch. Shinya and the girl always found ways to make cleaning and cooking fun. They always found ways to make the day little brighter.

"Is it morning already…?" a sleepy voice asked. Shinya turned to look at the silver haired girl, who was looking at him with sleepy sapphire blue eyes. Her long silver hair was a mess and she was almost completely covered by the huge fluffy blankets.

"Yes, it's morning~!" Shinya answered with a singsong-voice. "So, good morning! We have lots of things to do, so get up!" He grinned at the girl and walked to his clothing room. He could hear how the girl got up from the bed and walked to the door.

"I'll be going to my own room to dress up", she said. "See you in ten minutes!"

Shinya didn't have to answer to the girl, as she already closed the door and left him alone. Shinya hummed cheerfully to himself, as he quickly dressed up. He was wearing simple black jeans - even though he would gladly wear shorts, but it was already fall and too cold for that - and a white shirt, with a grey hoodie over it. He then stepped out of the small room, to his actual room, which was quite big.

He had a king-sized bed and three book shells, that were all filled with different books. Shinya also had his own TV, but he didn't use it all that much. He had a writing-desk as well, and of course it was full of unfinished little stories that Shinya liked to write and it too, was full of books. But what Shinya most loved in his whole room was the big balcony he had.

He and the silver haired girl spend most of their time at the old mill, but when they didn't, you could almost always find them from the balcony of Shinya's room. In the spring, he and the silver haired girl cleaned the place after winter, and in the summer time it was full of flowers and toys they left lying there. When the fall came, it was full of colorful leaves. But in winter, it was little too cold to just sit around the balcony playing - so they just had to be inside. Of course, they went outside too, but only when their mother allowed them to go. But now Shinya was already eight, soon enough he'd be old enough to decided what he wanted to do himself.

Now the balcony was bathing in the sun light, the colorful leaves that showed the different shades of orange, red, yellow and brown were making the balcony seem like it would've been on fire. Which was a scary thought, but luckily not true.

Shinya chuckled to himself for just thinking of something like that.

After ten minutes, Shinya went to the stairs that led down. In the manor, they had three floors, but the third floor was only used by the servants and most of the time Shinya or the girl couldn't go there. They would sometimes sneak to take a peek of that place, just out of interest.

Now, the girl was waiting for him at the end of the stairs, waving happily. She was dressed in a cute dress, that was light-blue. It brought up her eyes well, and her long silver hair now tied to a loose braid that easily reached her waist. Shinya always wondered when she would cut her hair shorter - but he also wanted to see how it would look like when it would reach the floor.

"C'mon Shinya!" the girl yelled up to him. "The breakfast is ready! Mommy and daddy are already waiting!"

That made Shinya even happier. Their parents were always very busy, and their father worked in the city. He always left early and came back late. And their mother mostly stayed in her workroom, or helped the servants with cooking and cleaning. Shinya didn't mind it, because when their parents had the time, they always spend it with them and then they would always do something new and fun.

He quickly ran down stairs, only to be scolded by his mother. Shinya's mother was a tall, slim and very beautiful woman, with very long and silky silver hair. She always had a kind smile on her lips and Shinya had never seen her angry. She was also very pale, but it wasn't because she was sick, she was just very… well, pale. Her eyes were warm chocolate brown and there was always a kind spark glimmering in them.

"Now, Shinya", she said when Shinya and the girl came to the breakfast table. "No running in the stairs. You know it's dangerous."

"I know mother", Shinya apologized. "I'm sorry."

He then sat down next to the already sitting girl and grinned at her when he stole the bread she had. This made the silver haired girl pout, but she didn't really complain as she took an another piece of bread.

"Now, Shinya", their father said, as he lowered the newspapers he had in his hands. "You shouldn't steal your sisters food. You're a man, after all." Shinya smiled at their father, who just shook his head as an answer. Their father was a muscular tall brown haired man, who had weird moustaches as well. But Shinya thought it was quite cool too - he looked like a gentleman from the stories Shinya always read. And he had those round glasses as well. Both Shinya and the silver haired girl had inherited almost everything from their mother - their silver hair, pale skin, girly features (even though, Shinya didn't want to admit that he looked little girly) and the kind attitude - but their sapphire blue eyes they got from their father.

"So, why aren't you at work, father?" the silver haired girl asked.

"I'm free today, so I decided to spend the day with my family. Why? Should I go to work instead?" their father asked, a teasing smile on his face. Oh yeah, that too - they inherited their teasing nature from their father.

"No!" both Shinya and the girl yelled in unison.

"Now, now", their mother chuckled. "Don't yell inside. Let's eat breakfast and then do something together."

"How about we'll go hiking? The weather is beautiful and soon it's winter, and too cold to go hiking", their father suggested.

"Sounds nice", their mother nodded, smiling approvingly. "So, what do you say, Shinya, Hinata?"

Shinya turned to look at his twin sister, Hinata, who looked straight at him, an excited smile on her face.

"We're in!"

The morning was beautiful. The day started well.

The night was ugly. In the end of the day, Shinya lost it all.

He saw the fire that devoured their manor, his father and mother still in. But it didn't matter, both of them had been killed before the fire started. Shinya cried. The balcony was on fire, everything was on fire.

Hinata was nowhere near him, nowhere to be seen. But he could hear her scream.

" _Help me! Shinya!"_

But Shinya wasn't able to do anything.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Shinya opened his eyes only to see darkness. His head hurt and he had no idea where he was. Oh wait - he was in a cell. Again. Shinya's hands had been chained together and he was lying on cold, hard rock-floor. The cell was dark, but behind the bars was light. He was still dressed in his JIDA-uniform, and he could still feel Byakkomaru's weak presence.

 _Hinata…_ Now, for the first time in forever, Shinya remembered the silver haired girl from his dreams completely. Her long hair, her sapphire blue eyes and her kind smile. Exactly like his mother. Yes, her name had been Hinata. And she had been Shinya's twin sister… Had he been dreaming again?

Shinya wondered how long he had been out and he still had no idea where he was. And he felt like he wasn't even making sense anymore.

Then he remembered what happened.

 _The vampires…!_ Shinya looked around in the cell, but he saw no one else. What happened to his squad? Were they still alive? Zero, the black haired vampire had said that Shinya was left alive only so they could get information out of him, and that they were planning on using his squad as hostages.

Shinya gritted his teeth together as he sat up. His wrist and head hurt a lot, the chains rubbing his skin open. He could hear vampires, and he bet that they smelled his blood too. That made him shiver - he had never enjoyed being bitten by a vampire, but it had happened only once before this. And Shinya wished that it wouldn't happen again.

" _Master…"_

Shinya's eyes widened when he heard his demon's familiar, sweet voice calling out for him. At least it seemed that the vampires hadn't sealed his cursed gear.

 _Byakkomaru…? Can you tell me what happened?_

" _Master, I called for help…"_

The demon's voice was very weak and Shinya could hardly feel it. Either the vampires _had_ sealed Byakkomaru or something else was making the demon weak. But what did Byakkomaru mean when he said he called for help?

" _I was able to message your friend…"_

 _My friend? Who?_

" _The one who was possessed…"_ Byakkomaru told him. Shinya's eyes widened even more, if it was possible. He knew right away who Byakkomaru meant. _"I wasn't able to tell him much, but at least he knows… that you're in trouble…"_

 _Guren? You mean Guren? Is he okay?!_

" _Hah… always worrying about him and not yourself, master… But I have some good news… he wasn't possessed when I met him…"_

Guren hadn't been possessed?! Had the raven broken free from Mahiru?! Hearing this made Shinya's heart a little lighter and he could actually sigh in relief - even though he really was in big trouble.

" _But more bad news… I'm too weak to really help you now… The vampires have done something, but I don't know what…"_ Byakkomaru growled in Shinya's mind. _"But I want to KILL them… all of them…"_

Now, that sounded more like the demon Shinya knew.

 _Well, you can kill as much as you want when we get out,_ he answered to the demon and Byakkomaru quieted down, hiding deep into Shinya's mind. He had been right about the fact that the vampires hadn't sealed Byakkomaru, or not at least completely… But what had they done?

"It seems you're finally awake", a familiar voice said behind Shinya. The silver haired man jumped, and turned around to see Zero standing there, a smug grin on his face. "You slept quite the while. Exactly ten hours."

 _That long?! This isn't good,_ Shinya thought.

"Where is my squad?" he asked. Zero answered by roughly grabbing his chin, and jolting him up. Shinya was little shorter than the noble, so he had to look upwards. And it made him angry. Zero really thought that he was above Shinya - but that was nothing new from the vampires.

"They're still alive… for now, that is", Zero said, breathing on Shinya's face. His breath smelled like blood and it made Shinya want to puke. "Hmmn…? What's with that cold look? I've been very gentle with you, you know? Many here would've already wanted to drink you dry - and I can't blame them, you look _delicious._ But Crowley Eusford-sama is coming here, and he wants to see the humans we captured. Alive."

 _Crowley Eusford?_ The name was very familiar to Shinya, but he couldn't find a face to the name.

"Crowley Eusford-sama is the thirteenth progenitor", Zero explained. "He is right now the right-hand man of the current ruler of Japan, Ferid Bathory-sama. You should feel honored because a vampire his caliper wants to meet someone like _you._ "

"Oh yes, I'm feeling very honored", Shinya answered with an annoyed smile. "It'll be an honor to kill someone like _him._ "

That seemed to piss Zero off, because the vampire threw him to a wall, which made Shinya let out a hiss of pain. He could feel that at least two of his rips broke because of the force. And as fast as Zero had thrown him, the man was again pressing him against a wall, a hand on Shinya's throat.

"You don't have what it takes to kill Crowley-sama", Zero hissed. "And now, I think it's time to have a little taste of you." The vampire licked his lips and removed his hand a little, so Shinya's throat was completely exposed to him. Shinya tried to push Zero off of him, but he wasn't really doing a good job - the vampires firm body was now pressed against his and Zero's mouth was just inches away from Shinya's throat.

It send shivers down Shinya's body, when the noble licked his artery hungrily, before piercing the skin with his sharp teeth. Shinya felt how his body tensed under the sudden pain and how he tried to desperately stay conscious. It hadn't even been ten seconds when the vampire already pulled his teeth out. But still, Shinya fell to the ground, feeling very light-headed and tired. His was panting pathetically and his head hurt even more than before.

"Uh-huh", Zero said, as he swiped the blood from his chin. "Your blood… it's strangely sweet." The vampire noble frowned at Shinya, who was panting and looking up at the vampire with empty blue eyes. "But I like it… no, I love it. And I know Crowley-sama will love it too. I've never tasted blood this sweet… I didn't know there was someone like this."

Zero kneeled next to Shinya, brushing his fingers over the bite marks. "Such a cute face you're making, human. I really do like you", Zero purred, a cold smile on his face. "You do not only look delicious, you taste delicious as well. This blood of yours is making me hungrier and that glossy look in your eyes… It's a good thing I can't drink you dry now. People with this tasty blood need to be saved for later. I think I'll keep you as my personal toy~. But now, I have to go. Rest up, you'll need it, _human._ "

And then Zero left, leaving Shinya alone.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Guren's pov:

"…Yu?!"

The younger raven head grinned, his green eyes glimmering happily. "It's me, idiot-Guren. And it's been a while, too."

Guren swiped the pathetic look from his face, and let out an angry growl. "Who are you to call me an idiot, idiot?" Guren sighed, but as he said those words, his mouth twisted into a genuine smile. Yu and his new squad walked closer to Guren and his squad, the raven haired boy still in the lead and that damn annoying smirk on his face. Guren wanted to punch him in the face, but at the same time he wanted to be the one punched. He clearly remembered how he had hurt Yu and his pink-haired friend, Kimizuki or whatever his name was. Guren would definitely deserve the punch.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

Yu's smile disappeared and he let out a nervous cough. Shinoa was smirking behind him like usually, so Guren guessed that it had something to do with her. "Yu-kun here was _very_ worried about you, Lt Colonel Ichinose, so he begged us to come with him and save you", Shinoa told Guren, her smirk widening. Guren didn't really believe it, so he turned to Yu, eyebrows raised questioningly.

Yu had a light blush on his face. "It's not like that", he mumbled. "I mean sure, I wanted to come and rescue you and the others… but I definitely didn't beg for anyone to come with me."

"Oh really~?" Shinoa said, her hands creeping on Yu's shoulders. "Remember Mitsuba, when three days ago, Yu-kun was basically kneeling before us."

The blonde girl decided to join Shinoa's teasing, as she too had a smug smirk on her face soon. "Yes, I do. And he was crying like a baby too, begging for us to help him to save his dear _God,_ Lt. Colonel."

"God?!" Yu said angrily. " _GOD?!_ You seriously couldn't come up with anything better?!"

Both Shinoa and Mitsuba laughed. "But Yu-kun", the ashen haired girl said. "We didn't come up with anything - everything is true."

"I don't mind being called God", Guren said bluntly.

"You shut up, idiot-Guren!" Yu yelled, looking very annoyed. This made Guren smirk happily, but he soon remembered, that they really didn't have time for this kind of fooling around business.

"Now, let's get serious. What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

Both Shinoa and Mitsuba quieted down, sharing the same worried looks. Yu again looked serious again, determined look in his eyes. "We came to get you guys out", the green eyed boy said. "And of course, we came to kick that Kureto-bastards ass, as well."

"No, we didn't come to do something like that", the pink haired tall boy, Kimizuki said. "There's no way we could kick the lieutenant general's ass."

"His a general now", Guren pointed out. "And I'm the lieutenant."

"…" Yu looked at him, dumbfounded by this. It seemed to take a moment for the idiot to comprehend something like that.

"Wait…? You're a lieutenant now?!" Yu finally said after few minutes.

Guren nodded slowly. "Don't sound so surprised, Yu. Kureto thinks that he can trust in Mahiru, so he promoted me. It's simple as that."

"Mahiru…? Is she the demon who possessed you?" Yu asked, serious look in his eyes again.

Guren nodded again. "Yeah, she's the one. Her name was Hiragi Mahiru and she was a genius, who created the cursed gear. But it took her life - or to put it correctly, I took her life. From then on, she has lived inside my sword as the demon, _Mahiru-no-Yo._ "

"So, in the end, she was the one in control?" Shinoa said, looking nervous.

"I'd like to say no", Guren answered. "But I really can't, because I don't know the answer either. But right now, I can assure you, Mahiru's not the one in control. I can't even feel her presence, which is concerning, but right now, I don't have the time to really think it." He glanced at his squad quickly, before looking back to Yu. "It's great that you care for us this much, little idiot", he said to the younger raven head. That made Yu grunt, annoyed look in his eyes. "But the only ones coming with you are these guys." He pointed his left thumb at his squad.

"What about you?" Yu's coward friend, Yoichi asked.

"I'm not coming, I can't come", Guren said. "Mahiru will take over me eventually, and it's nothing pretty to see."

"We could help you", Yu said.

"Ahaha, and how would you do that?" Guren asked, not believing Yu's words.

"You know, after what happened at Nagoya-airport, I've been possessed by a demon too", Yu told him. "It takes over me, and these guys lock me up when that happens. Luckily, I can tell when the demon is going to posses me, so it's not really a trouble. But I've yet to find a way to stop it, but I will find a way."

This made Guren smile - just moments ago, he had said the same words.

"Your demon is pathetically weak", Guren said to Yu, which made the boy annoyed again. "I'm not kidding Yu. Mahiru was ten times stronger, ten times wiser. Even if you would lock me up - she'll find a way to get you guys free her/me. And then it would just be one-sided bloodshed."

"But we're here now", Mito said. "Yu's squad isn't alone. I don't believe that even Mahiru would be able to defeat all of us."

"But what if someone dies?" Guren questioned. "You'd slowly start losing members of your squad, until you wouldn't be able to defeat her. And my demon doesn't work like Yu's. It doesn't appear for few hours and then disappear after a while. I've been possessed for _months_. And I don't even know how I got free now."

"We'll find a way!" Yu said.

"Yeah", Shinoa nodded. "And what about my brother? Don't you think that Shin-nii needs you?" Guren turned to look at the ashen haired girl in surprise. "We heard what Byakkomaru told you - Shin-nii is in big trouble. Don't you want to help him?"

"The Hiragi girl is right", Shigure mumbled. "You aren't the person to make others do the dirty work for you, Guren. And if you really care for Shinya-sama, shouldn't you come with us? So we could save him and the men he had with him, _together._ "

"I agree with Shigure", Goshi nodded. "I never liked the idea of leaving you behind, Guren. And Yu-kun is right, we'll find a way to stop Mahiru too."

"I still don-"

Guren was cut off by Mito, who punched him to his stomach - so hard that Guren needed to kneel down, holding his stomach. But he wasn't going to complain, this little pain was nothing compared to theirs.

"Shut up already, you idiot!" the red haired girl yelled angrily. "Come with us and we'll see what happens. It's our decision too, as your friends! Isn't Shinya your friend as well?!" Guren looked up to Mito, who was glaring down at him. "He was probably the only one out of us, who still believed in you - even after you abandoned us and even after you hurt us. And still, before Shinya left, he told us to _believe_ into you. He had every reason to be mad at you, yet he still decided not to be. Can you now abandon a friend, who refused to abandon you?"

"We do believe into you, now that you've apologized and told us the truth", Sayuri continued. "But Shinya-sama wasn't there to hear it. He isn't here now. And if Byakkomaru wasn't lying, he's dying, right now. You need to make things right, Guren."

Guren was quiet for a moment, his friends words ringing in his head. What should he do? If only Shinya was there to make things little brighter - the silver haired man had an amazing ability to make hard choices easier, by just being there.

"You hear that, idiot-Guren?" Yu suddenly said, a grin back on his face. "You seem to owe a lot to that sniper-guy."

"Yu-kun, we've talked about this", Shinoa said. "The sniper-guy's name is Shinya Hiragi. My older brother. S-H-I-N-Y-A. It's not that hard."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever", Yu sighed, getting an annoyed glare from Shinoa. "The point is, that Guren, you need to come with us. We'll definitely find a way to make things right again. And none of us have the intentions of dying, okay? So relax a little. We'll save Shinya. We'll save everyone." The green eyed boy gave Guren his hand. "The one thing I learned from you, was that you can't do everything alone. You need people around you - and that goes for you too, idiot."

Guren snorted loudly, but took the hand anyway. "It seems someone has grown a little", he said. "But one thing more Yu -"

"Huh?"

" - DO NOT TALK TO YOUR SUPERIORS LIKE THAT!" And, so, Guren kicked Yu down to the ground. He heard how the younger raven grunted something as an answer, but he wasn't sure what. Still, Guren had a peaceful smile on his face.

"You still have a lot to learn, idiot. I can't believe you still fall for that old trick", he grinned at the green eyed boy.

Yu looked up, his nose bleeding. "Y- yeah, right. Thanks for the lesson, _God._ "

"Tch, you really are one disrespectful asshole", Guren sighed.

"Yeah, but that's one more thing he learned from you", Goshi pointed out, a smug grin on his face.

"Sayuri, shut Goshi up."

"Yes sir!"

"Ah- wait, Sayuri, I was just jok- AH!"

Guren sighed again and brushed his hand through his hair. His family was still the same, but he found it very relieving. Maybe he could believe, that they could hold Mahiru back once the demon would make a comeback. At the moment, he didn't really have another choice.

Shinya still needed to be rescued. He owed at least that much to the silver haired man.

"Now then", Guren said. "We've wasted enough time here - so, how about we steal a car and make our way to Ikebukuro?"

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Guren was just organizing some of his reports to the book shell next to his desk, when he heard a knock on the door. Before he could even tell the person to come in, the door swung open. That was enough for Guren to know who it was.

"What do you want Shinya? I'm busy", he grunted, not even bothering to look at the silver haired man. The answer he got was a light chuckle.

"You know it's already four in the morning, Guren", Shinya said. The raven haired man stopped his doings and turned to look at the man behind him. Shinya was reading some papers Guren had left on his desk. The silver haired man yawned and Guren couldn't help but think that he was adorable.

"Really?" Guren asked, looking at the clock. Shinya was right, it was exactly four in the morning. "I didn't even notice…"

Shinya chuckled, as the sapphire blue eyes turned to look at him. "Guessed so. You really shouldn't work so late - you'll get wrinkles and then you'll be grumpy all day long. Oh wait - that's just your personality."

"Haha, really funny Shinya", Guren sighed. He walked back to his desk and sat down. "What are you doing up at this time? Working late like me?"

"No way", Shinya answered. "I don't want wrinkles nor do I want to be a grumpy asshole."

Guren gritted his teeth together. "Did you come here just to mock me?"

Shinya smiled teasingly. "No, not really. But you're making this just too easy for me, Guren. I couldn't sleep tonight, so I came to check on you. We both know you, that you're always working late. Don't you think it's time to go to sleep?"

Guren rolled his eyes, but Shinya was right. He was always working late. But Guren didn't care about that - he was actually happy to hear that Shinya came to check on him, just _him._ But of course, he wouldn't admit it aloud.

"I could say the same for you", Guren answered the silver haired man. "Aren't you feeling tired?"

Shinya yawned again. "Definitely. But when you can't sleep, you just can't sleep. Simple."

"That didn't make any sense."

Shinya chuckled, his smile turning brighter. "I'm not so logical as you, Guren. I go with the flow, you see."

"And where does the flow now go?" Guren asked.

"Well, it brought me here. And now, the flow will take us both to the vending machine to get coffee", Shinya answered, winking his eye. "Because we're both too late to continue this, unless we get some coffee. You of course want your coffee black, don't you? And that's what makes you so bitter, Guren."

"Oh? I know you like sweet things, but you aren't sweet at all", Guren grumbled.

"Ahaha~, that hurts my feelings", Shinya chuckled. "Why must you always be so grumpy? I don't think that I did something to you. Or are you still pissed because I punched you in high-school? You know, you did punch me right back, so you have no right to be angry about it."

Guren blushed a little as his thoughts wondered to that moment. Yep, Shinya had kicked his ass for good - and Guren's punch at the time hadn't affected the silver head at all - but oh well. "That was long time ago, Shinya. And you're just plain annoying. And forget the coffee, you can get it on your own."

The silver haired man shrugged his shoulders. "That's too bad, Guren. Well, I can't take being around you and this gloomy air, so I'll be going now. Have a nice morning~! Don't forget to be at the meeting later today!" Shinya turned around and started to make his leave.

Guren felt bad for what he said, but he really didn't know how to make things better. But he still got up and walked to the silver head, who had stopped to look at him questioningly. There was something he really needed to ask from Shinya.

"What's wrong Guren? Do you want to get coffee after all?" Shinya asked, looking little worried.

"Shinya, you wont leave my side, will you? You wont die, right?"

Shinya was obviously surprised to hear this, because his smile dropped for a moment. But it was back quickly, and his sapphire eyes glimmered like there would've been tears in them. He hugged Guren like he usually did, gentle chuckles escaping his perfect lips.

"Ahahaha, Guren. Are you worried about me?" the silver head said. "But don't worry, I'll never leave your side. We're family after all, aren't we?"

Shinya was still hugging him, and luckily the silver head didn't see Guren's blush. It took a moment for Guren to answer, but when he did, he of course made things worse.

"Shu- shut up, idiot", he stuttered. "Now, let's go and get those damn coffees."

Shinya answered with a chuckle when he pulled off of the hug, but Guren couldn't help but notice, that his smile was little sad now.

"Coffee?" Shinya asked.

"Yes", Guren nodded. "So, sugar or not?"

" _Sugar."_

Guren woke up, sighing loudly. It had only been a dream, but that dream had been kinda sweet. And it had really happened too, so you could call it a memory. In reality, Guren was sitting in a car, Shigure as the driver. In the backseat were sitting Sayuri, Mito and Goshi. Yu's squad had taken an another car, and they were driving right behind Guren's squad.

"Slept well?" Goshi asked.

"I don't think that I was out that long", Guren said, ignoring Goshi's question.

"An hour", Mito said. "So yeah, not so long. Have you been sleeping well?"

"With Mahiru in my head?" Guren chuckled. "Not really."

"You still can't sense her?" Sayuri asked.

"No, for some reason. Let's hope things stay that way", Guren said. "But how can I really help you, when I can't even trust my own blade? I wont be really able to fight, because you can't kill vampires without a cursed gear."

"Just use yours, and kick Mahiru's ass", Shigure bluntly said.

"Yeah, and that'll work", Guren sighed. But Shigure did have a point. Maybe Guren needed to make Mahiru submit to him. At least then he could do something. Especially now that they were already very close to Ikebukuro and the vampires.

Guren's thoughts wondered back to Shinya and he really hoped that they'd make it in time. Shinya was too fragile and sweet - what if the vampires would do something bad with him? There were worse things than death. Guren was afraid that even if they'd managed to save Shinya, the silver haired man would have changed somehow. More than that, Guren was afraid that Shinya wouldn't trust him anymore.

He really had messed everything up.

But Guren would also fix everything.

 _End of chapter 4_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	5. Chapter 5

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari No seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

 _Chapter 5_

Shinya's pov:

"Shinya? Can you hear me?"

A familiar voice was calling out for him, but Shinya just wanted to sleep. That way he didn't need to be in pain and watch his friends die. That way he didn't even think about that idiot raven haired friend of his…

Shinya opened his eyes on the second his thoughts wondered back to Guren. He was still lying on the cold hard rock-floor of the cell he had been locked into. He had no idea how long he had been there or what time it was now, but did it really matter? Byakkomaru had told Guren that Shinya was in trouble, but would the raven really come? Even if Mahiru wasn't anymore the one in control, did Guren care that much about Shinya? Did Guren feel like his life was worth the risk?

"You're awake", a woman, that was kneeling next to Shinya sighed. Shinya blinked his eyes few times, trying to get used to the dim light of the cell. Soon enough he recognized who the woman was.

"…Airi?"

"Yes, it's me", Airi answered, a sad smile on her face. "You've had it rough, three rips broken and blood pressure really low. And judging from the bite-mark on your throat, some vampire decided to have a bite."

Shinya slowly sat up, his eyes still focused on the blonde woman. She seemed pretty fine, just few bruises on her. It didn't seem that anyone from the vampires would've bit her.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah", the blonde woman answered. But Shinya saw it was a lie, and soon, Airi broke into tears. The woman leaned on him, silent sobs leaving her mouth and Shinya quietly embraced her, shielding her with his own body. "I- I'm just so sca- scared, Shinya", Airi sobbed. "I don- don't want to die… not yet."

Shinya hummed knowingly, but he really had no words that would reassure Airi. He had never seen the woman break down like this, and so, it was new to him. Shinya had been surrounded by strong people from the very beginning of his life. Shinya had been taught not to ever let his emotions take control. He had been taught to be strong - but seeing Airi like this made him too want to cry and beg for help.

But someone needed to stay strong, and if it wasn't Airi, then it needed to be him.

"Shh…", he whispered into Airi's ear. "It's okay, I'll figure out something. We'll both live. The help is coming."

Airi's head was pressed against Shinya's chest so Shinya couldn't really see her face, but now she looked up, tears still flowing out of her grey eyes. Right now, Airi looked so damn vulnerable and hurt that Shinya wanted to go and punch the one who had made the woman like this.

But it had been him, so he was the one who deserved the punch. Now that Shinya's worst nightmare had come to reality, what should he do? Maybe Guren was coming to help him, but what if not? Shinya knew they had few days until the vampires would kill them. Until Crowley Eusford would arrive, they'd still live.

When would the noble vampire be there, that was something Shinya did not know.

"Help?" Airi muttered. "Did you manage to call for help?"

"Something like that…", Shinya muttered. He then smiled at the woman. "C'mon, Airi. Don't give up just yet. There's still a chance for us to survive."

 _No, there isn't. You're all dead._ A grim thought ran through Shinya's mind, but he didn't let it falter his smile.

Airi looked into his eyes for a moment, before she straightened herself, wiping the tears away. "Right, I'm sorry. I'm just not used to situations like this."

Shinya nodded. "I can understand that", he said, still smiling. "But there's no use for panicking. We need to stay calm and think this through. I definitely wont die in a place like this." He paused for a moment to look around. There was no one else in the cell. "So, where are the others? Have you seen them?" he asked from Airi.

The blonde woman sighed and shook her head. "I haven't seen anyone after we got caught. You were the first one, since I was brought here for some reason. And god dammit, you scared me too. It looked like you would've been dead!"

Shinya chuckled at that. "Well, I was tired."

"So you were just sleeping?!"

"No, no", Shinya said. "When one of the vampire nobles bit me, I lost pretty much blood, so I also lost consciousness. I didn't mean to scary you, sorry." Airi looked at him for a while again, but she ended up shrugging her shoulders.

"Don't apologize. You didn't even know I was coming here", she said. "Let's just hope the others are okay. At least they have Hikaru with them."

"Yeah", Shinya mumbled, but he was quite sure that the brown haired woman was no use in this situation. Sure, Hikaru could heal others with the right equipments - but now all she could do was probably reassure Hachirou and Hibiki, if they were in the same cell.

"Oh, by the way, Shinya", Airi suddenly said. "I have a phone if you want to make a call."

"…"

Shinya stared at Airi for a moment, completely dumbfounded. Airi started to dig her uniform, her hand slipping inside her bra. Shinya just watched her, as she dug up a small phone.

"Yo- you had a phone inside your bra?" he ended up asking. "And the vampires didn't find it?"

Airi's face turned dark red. "It's a good hiding place and no, no vampires started to look through my underwear." She gave the phone to him. "If there's someone coming to help, maybe you should inform him or her a little more. I bet you didn't really have the chance to talk much."

 _Actually, I didn't talk at all…_ Shinya thought, sweat dropping.

"Quickly now", Airi hissed. "We don't have much time. You can only make one call, okay? After that, I'm throwing the phone away. We can't let the vampires find it."

Shinya nodded. He knew, alright. He opened the phone and stared at it for few second. He remembered Guren's number, but he hesitated to call it. What if Guren wouldn't pick up? What if he would? What would Shinya say?

"Shinya!" Airi whisper-yelled.

Shinya made his decision to call his raven haired friend, because in the end, Guren was the only person he could even call.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Mahiru's/Guren's pov:

That fool.

Thinking he could get rid of her like that? So easily, without doing a thing. Ha, Guren had really become too soft and too weak. But he did manage to release his friends and leave to safe Shinya. But now, Mahiru had taken the control back and it hadn't even been that hard.

It had happened when the car had stopped. That's when Mahiru had woken up from the strange slumber she had been locked into for a moment. She had no idea what had happened, she had just lost control and then it had been dark. But when she woke up, she took over Guren's body right away, filling her ex-lover's mind with her sweet honey-voice.

Guren had managed to inform his friends about it and Shigure had stopped the car right away, but once she did, it was already too late. Mahiru couldn't help but laugh inwardly as she destroyed the car with one swing of her/Guren's sword. She knew that no one had died, but it wouldn't make any difference, she would kill them sooner or later. But first, she had to find out what was going on…

"Guren!" Goshi's voice yelled. Mahiru had backed off from the car, and she was now standing on the other side of the road, Guren's squad on the other side. There was an another car too, and it stopped as well. Soon enough Hyakuya Yuchirou stepped out of it, followed by his squad and Hyakuya Michaela and Narumi Makoto.

Mahiru couldn't help but smirk, seeing one vampire, one of the _Seraphs_ with humans. But, there was Hyakuya Yuchirou as well, who had slowly started to use his Seraph-powers. Of course, the boy couldn't control it at all. "I need to get them back to the headquarters. I bet Kureto would be happy to see them~", Mahiru said with a sing-song voice.

 _Don't…_

Guren's voice rang in her mind, as her ex-lover tried to fight back. It felt annoying and made her head hurt and sometimes Guren even managed to take over - but just for a moment. This time it had been longer, but there had been something else pushing Mahiru back than Guren alone.

" _But Guren…"_ she purred to him. _"I'm only doing this for you… We have to get back to Kureto. What about humanity?"_

 _What about Shinya?!_ Was what Guren yelled back to her, more force in his voice and Mahiru almost blacked out and lost control. It made her grit her teeth together in annoyance.

Shinya.

Of course it was him again. That damn adopted bastard, he had messed up Mahiru's plans more than once. She hated him with passion, especially now, that he had stolen Guren's heart. Guren belonged to _her,_ not to that damn silver haired man. Mahiru should've guessed that it was Shinya that freed Guren in the first place. It was always when the silver head was around that Guren was at his strongest. There was no necessary reason for Shinya to even be around the raven - even a thought of Shinya was able to make Guren little more powerful.

And that just told Mahiru how much Guren really loved the silver head.

" _What about him…? Let him just die, Guren. He's not important anymore",_ Mahiru almost hissed to her ex-lover. _"You only need me, and you'll only follow me, right?"_

Guren did not answer, and Mahiru didn't even have the time to wait for the answer, when the younger raven headed boy charged towards her, his sword up and eyes locked into Mahiru's red ones.

"Give Guren back, now!" Hyakuya Yuchirou yelled angrily.

"Hoho~", Mahiru chuckled as she dodged the attack easily. "Is that how you talk to your superiors, Yu?"

"Don't use Guren's words!" Yu said. "He's not your toy! Give him back!"

Mahiru scowled at Yu. "What do you mean? I am Guren. C'mon, Yu, it's me. Can't you see that?"

Yu narrowed his big leaf green eyes at Mahiru. "You're not him. Guren's eyes are not red, demon! Give Guren back or we'll kick your ass!"

 _We?_

Mahiru looked around to see, that she was completely surrounded. She observed the people around her - every one of them seemed to be pretty strong. When she spotted Shinoa, a cold smile made way to her lips.

"Shinoa, it's been a while", she said, as she decided to drop the act. They knew anyway, since she had destroyed the car and Guren had warned them. "Are you seriously pointing your scythe at your older sister? I'm little hurt."

Shinoa frowned at her, before answering: "My older sister is dead, demon. Now, give lieutenant Ichinose's body back."

Mahiru just shook her head, amused by her little sisters answer. "You are an idiot, Shinoa. And why would I give Guren back? It feels great to be alive", she chuckled, dark aura leaking out of her body and the sword in her hand started to glow. "Power feels so great… I can't get enough of it. And Guren doesn't even want to come back - he's just fine with me."

"We don't believe you", Mito hissed angrily. "Guren told us that you're an annoying bitch. _A dead_ annoying bitch."

"Oh really?" Mahiru asked. "Well, he can be like that sometimes, but it doesn't matter. A body is still a body."

"Then, what about the silver haired sniper we are supposed to save?" Hyakuya Michaela suddenly said. "Guren seemed to care for him a lot. Will he just abandon him?"

"Don't even mention that man", Mahiru hissed, now getting angry. "He's on our way. It's for the better that he dies - that way Guren has no power, no will to go against me."

"Are you saying that Shinya somehow affects you and Guren?" Shigure asked.

Mahiru knew where this was going. Yes, Shinya affected her and Guren, a lot, because Guren loved him. If Guren would still love Mahiru and only _her,_ she could easily control him. But because Shinya lived, so did Guren's free will. And because of Guren's will, Mahiru wasn't able to control him completely. Guren would forever be a voice inside her head, trying to take over her. Just like she would always be in Guren's mind.

But she had no intensions of telling this to Guren's men. They'd only try to use it as their advantage, and Mahiru could not anymore afford that. Guren had probably already found out about her little weakness.

 _I need to save him,_ Guren said. Mahiru could see him standing in front of her in her mind, a determined look in his eyes. _Give me my body back. Now._

That made Mahiru grunt aloud and she almost lost her balance. Everyone surrounding her saw that, and Yu and Mito made their move. Mahiru was just able to block their attacks - she knew that they wouldn't hurt Guren's body, not at least too much.

But suddenly the phone in her/Guren's uniforms pocket started to ring. Mahiru took it out and who would've guessed: the caller was Shinya. A cold smirk played on Mahiru's mouth. This was her moment. Maybe she didn't need to crush Guren's love for Shinya, but Shinya's love for Guren. She could make the silver head believe, that Guren didn't care for him. Because Guren had never truly showed his love to Shinya, and Mahiru knew for sure that Shinya loved Guren.

Shinya loved Guren so much, that he wasn't even able to hate him. Mahiru had always seen it. Whenever Guren would say something mean to Shinya, Mahiru would see the hurt in the sapphire eyes. But he could also see the love. Because of that love, Shinya always answered with a smile, never showing his true feelings, except the love for Guren. It had been obvious for years - and yet, Guren had failed to see it.

Mahiru decided to answer the call, since now, Shinya didn't know was she the one in control or not. She saw how everyone quieted down to watch her carefully.

"Hello", Mahiru said.

The other end was quiet for a moment. But then she heard the familiar voice.

"… _Guren?"_

"Yes, it's me", Mahiru answered. "Is there something wrong, _Shinya_?" She enjoyed the shocked expressions Guren's men had on their face when she said Shinya's name aloud.

" _You… where the hell are you? It doesn't sound like you would be in Shibuya."_

"I'm on a mission, in Shinjuku. Why?" Mahiru could hardly stop the chuckle, when she heard the hope in Shinya's voice. But she would crush it. Completely.

" _Listen, Guren. If you could inform Kureto about this mission of mine… it didn't go well",_ Shinya said. _"We need reinforcements. To the west of Ikebukuro."_

"I don't think Kureto cares about that", Mahiru chuckled. She had to back away from Guren's squad, because they were now making unnecessary noises.

"Shinya! It's not Guren!" Goshi yelled, but Mahiru knew that Shinya didn't hear it. And that made her even more confident. This was the best moment for her to destroy both Guren's and Shinya's will.

 _Oh, god. Stop,_ Guren begged in her mind. _Don't, don't hurt Shinya._

"So, are you dying, Shinya?" Mahiru asked.

There was a bitter chuckle on the other end. _"Not yet, but soon yes… Can you get Kureto send reinforcements? We need them. "_

Mahiru had to remove the phone from her ear for a moment, so she could laugh aloud. _This great,_ she thought, while Guren was trying his everything to get his body back. "Shinya, don't you think you're asking for little too much~? It would be suicide-mission, and what - you have like five men there? It's not worth the damn risk."

" _Guren, it's not for me! My men… what about them?"_

"Don't you think we've lost a little too much men already?" Mahiru asked. "Five people aren't worth the risk, Shinya. I'm sorry, but I have to think _my men_ too. Just don't give them any information. You do want the best for humanity, don't you?"

The other end was quiet for a moment and Mahiru chuckled as she dodged the attacks Mito, Yu and now Shinoa and Sayuri were aiming at her. It was hard, but she would manage. All she needed to hear was Shinya's hurt voice. All she needed to know was that Shinya was giving up.

"Shinya-sama!" Sayuri yelled. "Don't listen to her! It's not Guren!"

"We are coming for you!" Mito yelled right after her.

 _Tch! You bothersome humans!_

" _Of course, Guren",_ Shinya finally answered, his voice wavering a little and Mahiru knew she had won. _"Then, this is seriously the last time we'll talk. I'm sorry to ask for this, but if it possible… Don't let Mahiru control you, okay? If you want the best for humanity, be yourself."_ Shinya chuckled slightly and Mahiru felt her/Guren's body suddenly stop. And there was something coming out of her eyes too… Tears?!

 _Wha- what the hell? Why can't I move?!_ she thought, panicking a little. Guren's squad seemed to realize the difference now, as they stopped their movements to watch Mahiru.

" _I'm sorry",_ Shinya said again. _"I truly am. But I can't forgive you either, Guren. Because if my squad wont survive, I'll blame you. I seriously will come back from the grave to hunt you down. And I wont be as nice as I've been."_

 _Stop talking! You're messing everything up!_ Mahiru screamed as she felt how Guren was rising to the surface again. Her body started to tremble and her own sword was pointed at her. _No! No, don't you dare!_

Had Guren lost his mind? Stabbing himself wouldn't make things better! Maybe Mahiru would be pushed aside, but Guren would pay the cost.

" _Guren… I'll try my best to survive. But you know, that's pretty impossible, considering that I'm in the middle of vampire nobles. I'm nothing more than livestock to them now. Sorry if I sound so down, but I'm little disappointed. And I have one of my men right next to me too, ahahaha",_ Shinya chuckled. _"Gotta go now, the vampires are coming. You know, I'll still wait for you. But you don't have to risk your men either, okay? I have no right to ask for that, especially since you care for them so much."_

 _Stop already!_ Mito had grabbed Guren's blade, so he wasn't able to cut his own body, but they were obviously having troubles holding him back. And so was Mahiru, who still couldn't stop the trembling and Guren's yells in her mind. She wanted to scream aloud, but that would make things just worse. Then Shinya would know, that in the phone wasn't Guren.

" _Goodbye, Guren. Live a little longer, for me too, okay? I'll miss all of you",_ Shinya said, and this time Mahiru could tell that the call was really ending. And so could Guren, because her ex-lover was just able to push her away.

 _Shinya… you damn bastard,_ was Mahiru's last thought before she lost control.

"Shinya…?!" Guren said to the phone, but right after that, the call ended. He wondered had Shinya even heard him in the end.

"Guren, you're back!" Mito sighed in relief, as she let go off Guren's sword and it dropped to the ground. Guren looked around, little confused, but he did know what was going on.

"Dammit, you really did scare us there", Yu said. "Idiot-Guren."

Guren gave the boy an annoyed glare. "I'm sorry, alright", he hissed. "But we don't have time for this, we need to hurry! Shinya told that the vampires are in west Ikebukuro."

"Guren… our car", Goshi mumbled. "You kinda destroyed it."

"Then find a new one!" Guren said.

"Yes sir", Goshi squeaked as he left with Shigure to look for a new car.

"Lieutenant Ichinose…", Shinoa mumbled. "My older brother… What happened?"

"There's nothing new", Guren simply answered. "We already knew he was in trouble. But now we at least where to look." Guren saw Goshi coming back already, so he guessed that the man had found a new car. "We'll go straight to the west Ikebukuro", he ordered. "We seriously have no time to waste anymore."

"Understood, sir", Mito nodded. "Everyone, prepare to leave!"

Guren watched quietly as Yu's squad went back to car and as Shigure drove back with a new car, this one being little bigger than the last one. Guren couldn't help but worry even more and feel even more guilty than before. He should've been strong enough to reassure Shinya, that they were coming. Shinya wasn't going to die. Guren wasn't going to allow it.

He would not allow Shinya die, not in million years.

Not when he still could save him.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Shinya's pov:

He messed up their only chance of surviving. And then he wasn't even able to apologize to Airi, when the vampires came and separated them, dragging Shinya away from the cell.

"I can walk you know", Shinya hissed to the vampire who was practically carrying him.

"And so, you can also run", the vampire answered coldly. "I'm not giving you the chance."

"You think I'd run and leave my squad behind?! Don't be ridiculous!" Shinya retorted with equal coldness. "And you could still catch me - I'm not in the shape to run away." Which was true - Shinya had at least three broken rips and he was little light-headed as well, since he was little dehydrated. The vampire seemed to think it, and in the end, he did let Shinya down. They had another vampire there with them, but this one stayed quiet the whole time. He did give a disapproving look to the other, bigger vampire who had been carrying Shinya, when he let the silver haired man walk on his own.

 _How am I going to make things right?_ Shinya thought, biting his lip. _I messed up our only chance to get help - all because I trusted in Guren. And sad, I still do. I hope he's going to survive this damn war, and live for me._ Shinya had lost his will to fight for his life. He knew for certain that they'd die, they couldn't escape it anymore. He could always be optimistic, like usually, but he no longer found the power to do it. The best change they had, was that they'd be turned into livestock. It meant that they could live.

 _But we all know, that neither of us will choose a fate like that,_ Shinya grimly thought. They were soldiers, proud soldiers. They wouldn't live under vampires - death was a better decision. Even Shinya thought like that, that was the way he had been taught. And honestly, death would at least bring peace to his collapsing world. Everything was from hell, Shinya couldn't deny the fact that he wanted to die. Why would he? He had no reason to live anymore.

 _NO! I have to think of my squad! They haven't gone through what I have, they still have every reason to live! Hikaru and Hachirou need to get married - everyone knows they love each other,_ a small smile formed on Shinya's lips as he thought about it. _Hibiki is so promising soldier too, he could take my place as the best sniper of the JIDA. And Airi… She could find a man who could love her back._ He knew. He had always known. The way Airi looked up to him, was the same way Shinya looked up to Guren. With such bright eyes, such kind smile and such open feelings. So vulnerable. Airi was everything a man could ask - strong yet caring. Why couldn't Shinya just choose her? She would've certainly been better than Guren, who abandoned him and became possessed by his demon. Airi could control her own, she was better every possible way… And yet, Shinya only thought her as a friend and his heart was still in the hands of an other man.

Had she realized that? Shinya didn't want to hurt her by telling the truth, but at the same time he knew that he would need to do it. _Those four… is there a possibility for me to get them out?_

"We're here", said the bigger out of the two vampires and Shinya stopped to look in front of him. They had walked through countless hallways, halls, and slums. He had seen countless humans and vampires there. Livestock, humans with empty looks in their eyes. Would Shinya soon be the same with them? But now they had passed all the slums, and were at the richer point of the base, and were standing in front of huge marble doors. There were only high-ranking vampires walking around, few nobles even. No humans. Shinya took a deep breath in, and tried to calm his nerves down, but it was honestly hard. He hardly could stop his body from shaking.

"Inside this room is Crowley-sama", the bigger vampire continued. "He's waiting for you, so get in." The door in front of them opened, and Shinya saw a noble vampire standing there, cold look in her face. She had long blonde hair, blood red eyes and fairly big… chest. He remembered seeing her before, at Nagoya.

"Horn-sama", the bigger vampire said, bowing his head. The other vampire followed his lead, but Shinya just stared at her. "We've brought the human as you asked."

"Thank you", the blonde vampire, Horn, said sweetly. A cold smile formed on her face and she licked her lips hungrily. "You can go now." The two vampires left without another word. The blonde vampire waved her hand a little and then turned her attention back to Shinya. "Now then, you look tastier than I thought you would - since you've been down at the dungeons for a while now." Her hand reached out for Shinya, and he didn't even blink an eye, when she touched the bite-mark on his neck. "Someone took a sip, even though Crowley-sama told not to do it. Well, you're still alive, so does it really matter? Follow me, human."

Horn turned around and started to walk away, and Shinya followed her without a word. There was seriously no point to even try to kill her - not without a weapon. "You were at Nagoya", the blonde vampire said as they walked through a huge hall. At the other end of the hall, were waiting few noble vampires and even from far away, Shinya could see a familiar face amongst the vampires. Now he remembered exactly who Crowley Eusford was.

 _He's the thirteenth progenitor! We were supposed to kill him at Nagoya,_ Shinya thought. _And he's the reason Guren went nuts._

"So were you", Shinya answered the blonde vampire, who chuckled quietly.

"The one with the gun", Horn continued, just to annoy Shinya. "And the one with Ichinose Guren. Too bad - you didn't manage to kill us, but hey look at the bright side. You survived, unlike many other. And now you're here - just to be killed by us." She glanced at Shinya, a sinister smile on her lips. Shinya frowned at her, but said nothing. Then they finally arrived to the other end of the hall and Shinya stopped ten meters before the vampire nobles. He recognized Zero, Crowley and the other female vampire, who was always with the thirteenth progenitor. The one with a child-like attitude, iris-colored hair and a goofy smile. There was also the other female vampire who had dark green hair and light blue eyes - one of those who had captured them. The other three vampire who were there were just a question to Shinya. They all were nobles obviously, but they their hoods over their heads. One was female and two were males.

"Aw, are you sure you don't want to get any closer?" the childish vampire asked, mockery in her voice. "We wont bite - maybe." She then laughed at her own pathetic joke, and Shinya sweat dropped at that. Horn had walked to the vampire and smacked her lightly.

 _I suppose vampires can have their own weirdoes too._ His thoughts automatically ran to Goshi and Hachirou. _Weirdoes indeed._

"It's fine", Crowley said calmly. "He could stay fifty meters away from us, and I'd still believe that he'd hear and see us just fine. Am I right, sniper?"

"Something like that", Shinya answered. "But if I'd have my cursed gear, I could be hundred meters away from you and still hear you - wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Zero growled angrily. "Don't you dare to mock Crowley-sama! You damn human!"

"Now, now Zero. There's no need to get so worked", Crowley chuckled. "You do have a strong will, sniper. I give you that. Do you remember who I am?"

"Of course, Crowley Eusford. The thirteenth progenitor", Shinya simply answered.

"Correct. I'm surprised you remember it so well", the thirteenth progenitor said, actually seeming genuinely surprised. "Now, you now my name. May I ask for yours?"

 _What's with him? Why is he acting so polite?_ Shinya was quiet for a moment. He knew that there was no point hiding his name - they'd find out one way or another. "Hiragi Shinya."

"Oh, so you're a Hiragi?" Crowley said, humming knowingly. "Interesting. What does a Hiragi do in a place like this?"

"I don't think that's your business", Shinya coldly answered.

"My, my. You are a feisty one - but c'mon. There's no need to be so secretive anymore. If you tell us everything you know about the JIDA, I'll let your squad live." Crowley gave Shinya a smug smirk, which made the blood inside of the silver head boil.

"They're still alive, all of them. They're alive, right?" he asked, stopping himself from saying something that might've kill him and the people he cared for.

"Naturally. We do need something to blackmail you with", Crowley answered.

"That's really sweet", Shinya hissed, his hands clenching into fists. "But I have to refuse. I'm not going to betray the JIDA."

"What about your squad?"

"They are soldiers too."

Crowley was quiet for a while, thoughtful look on his face. The other nobles said nothing, they just followed the conversation with interest. "Then, what would make you say yes?" the thirteenth progenitor asked after a while of thinking. "Torture? Or maybe I should just kill them off."

"I know", Zero said. "Let's torture his men in front of him, that would surely break him. Humans care too much." The vampire noble had a sinister smirk on his face, and Shinya gave him a cold glare. Still, Zero was right. Shinya had no idea would he be able to take it, if they'd decide to torture his squad right in front of him.

"Or… how about I make you _a vampire_ too Hiragi Shinya", Crowley suddenly suggested, his smile turning darker, as he eyed Shinya. "Then you'd have no reason to help humans anymore…"

Shinya was shocked by this. Surely the vampire noble was kidding, right? _Right?_ "… Tell me that's a joke."

"No", Crowley smirked. "I was honestly thinking it as an option. I mean, why not? You'd fit in here well - you have everything a vampire should have. Beauty and power."

 _This has to be a joke,_ Shinya thought. _There's no way -_

Suddenly he felt piercing pain on his neck and too late he realized that Crowley had decided to have a little taste. The vampire bit roughly down on his neck and blood trickled down. Shinya's hand went to Crowley's chest and he tried to push the man away, but it was no use - it just hurt even more. It took a while, but when Crowley finally pulled away, Shinya lost his balance, panting pathetically. But for some reason, the thirteenth progenitor caught him, and held him up.

"There's nothing you can do now", the vampire chuckled.

"So _give up._ "

 _End of chapter 5  
_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	6. Chapter 6

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _A/N: Thank you for the support and happy readings!  
_

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

 _Chapter 6_

Guren's pov:

It was scary how different Ikebukuro was from Shibuya and Shinjuku - while the two places under the control of humans were pretty safe and seemed peaceful, Ikebukuro was empty and danger was lying behind every corner, under every rock, even howling in the wind. There was no human to be seen, weird thing was, that there didn't seem to be any Horsemen of John either - but that had to have something to do with vampires.

Guren and the others had arrived to Ikebukuro about five minutes ago, and they had already left the cars behind. They hid them of course. Who knew, maybe they'd need them later on, if they'd need to run away. No one really talked as they walked forward, not really knowing where to go. All Guren knew, was that Shinya and the vampires were somewhere in the west Ikebukuro. Didn't say much, when that part of Tokyo was damn big. But at least they didn't need to look through the whole Ikebukuro.

"Do we really have to look through this whole place in order to find the sniper guy and his squad?" Yu suddenly complained, earning annoyed glances from Shinoa and Mito. Guren was pretty used to him and he's habit of forgetting names, so he didn't even bother to look at the younger raven head. "I mean, this place is huge. My demon will take over me any time now, and then we can't really move from place to place. I have about two days before I'm out of the picture for a while. My point is, that we don't have time to search this whole part of the city."

"You don't think we haven't realized that", Kimizuki snorted. "The vampires will kill them all before you'll be taken over by your demon. It's a real surprise if they haven't killed them already - and they've probably gotten all the information needed."

"Shinya-sama would never betray the JIDA", Mito snapped at the pink haired boy and Guren let out a sigh. It wasn't a good thing that they were fighting like this - if there was no trust between the team-members, there was really no point to even try fighting together. "Don't forget that he's a major general _and_ a well-respected Hiragi. Soldiers trust him and he's a great leader too. And you don't have to worry about his squad either - they're loyal to Shinya-sama, and they'll never betray him. If Shinya-sama tells them to take the secrets of JIDA to the grave, that's what they'll do."

"Vampires have their own ways to make a human-mind break", Mika pointed out coldly. This time Guren decided to step in, before Mito had the chance to say something really nasty and mean.

"Stop that", he said, giving them all angry glares. "Shinya wont betray the JIDA, Mito's right about that. _But_ the vampire is right too, our enemies have their own ways of breaking the human-mind."

"Guren, his name is Mika", Yu muttered.

"Yeah, and the sniper guy is named Shinya", Shinoa mumbled under her breath, earning an annoyed glare from Yu.

"Can we forget this already?" Guren sighed. "There's really no reason for us to fight right now. And someone will hear us if we wont keep it down, don't forget that we're at the enemy's territory. Our mission here is to find Shinya and his squad, and get out as fast as possible. We aren't here to annihilate the vampires."

"Just don't forget that", Shigure said, almost so quietly that Guren didn't hear. "If Shinya happens to die, we'll still need to run away. This place is full of vampires, you can't risk all of our lives for one." Guren gave Shigure a sad glance - the short woman was right, if Guren would be too late, and Shinya would happen to die, Guren would need to leave him behind, as long as his squad needed him. He couldn't stay behind and revenge Shinya. Shigure didn't say this to get Guren feel guilty, rather, she wanted Guren to know, that there was life even if Shinya would die.

 _But what's life without light?_

"That wont happen", Guren ended up answering. "No one is going to die."

Guren saw Yu's face light up with a smile. "Now you're talking, idiot-Guren! Let's all make sure no one dies - we'll leave this place together!" The younger raven head had an excited smile on his face, green eyes full of undying hope. It had been so long since Guren had seen something so innocent, the pure hope of a child. Yu had seen so many bad things, and yet, there he was, standing like strong wall, giving courage to everyone else. _Yu, someday, you'll make a great leader. May you be the one to lead humanity out of the dark, to the new beginning._ Guren smiled a little at the thought. _When the time comes, I'll leave it all to you._

Yu and his friends were the ones who were going to bring victory to humanity. Now Guren was really starting to see it - his time was over. If the war would end someday and Guren would still be alive, he would move to the countryside and live there, alone or with someone (his silent wish was for that someone to be Shinya). The country's leading would be left to Yu and his friends, at least Guren hoped so. They needed a strong leader, who also had a sense of reality - unlike Kureto. They needed to remember their people too and not kill for nothing.

"You've grown up to be a fine young adult", Guren chuckled, ruffling Yu's hair slightly.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?! And stop that!" the younger raven head yelled and slapped Guren's hand away, and the older one chuckled once again.

"I take my word back, idiot", he said. "You're still a kid."

"Shut up, idiot-Guren!" Yu muttered, blushing deeply.

" _You and Yu - you're almost like father and son! So cute!"_ Shinya's words rang inside Guren's mind, and it felt like a stab to the heart. The silver haired man seemed to be so far away, yet so close. _"I'm glad you have him, Guren. I think Yu-kun brings up your best sides."_

 _You know, Shinya, I'm slowly starting to think you're right about that…_ Guren thought. "Well, Yu's right anyway – we have to keep going. If two days is our limit, then we have to deal with it. We'll find Shinya and his squad within two days."

"Let's go!" Yu yelled aloud, forgetting that he was supposed to be angry with Guren. The green eyed boy took an excited step forward, or should Guren say an excited jump. But the younger raven head stopped all of a suddenly, frozen and a nervous look on his face.

"What's wro-" Shinoa didn't have time to finish her sentence, when the ground under Yu suddenly betrayed, the kid falling straight into the hole. "Yu!" Everyone ran towards the hole, glancing down to the darkness. Obviously Yu had stepped to a very fragile part of the grumbling cement, which broke under him, revealing an old underground passage.

"Hey idiot!" Guren yelled down. "Are you okay?"

Before Yu could answer, his foster brother, Mika jumped down after the green eyed boy. _Tch, stupid kid, acting on his own,_ Guren thought, biting his lower lip. Honestly they didn't need any more disobedient kids and it wasn't wise to split up. "Let's go. It actually might be better if we go underground, there are less Horsemen around there. Though, there might be more vampires", he said.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Sayuri questioned. "We might be able to get some information out of them, if we meet a one."

Guren thought about it a moment, but before he could answer, Sayuri jumped down, following the blonde vampire. "That might be true, but we can't really trust them", he said after her, and he heard a quiet hum as an answer

"Of course not", Mito said like it would've been obvious – like it probably was. "But what else can we do? Yu is right anyway, we don't have much time. Either you or him lose control, or Shinya gets killed. And I suppose we don't want that to happen."

Guren let out a snort, before he too, jumped down to the darkness, his and rest of Yu's squad right behind him. Guren landed softly to the ground, while he heard someone else - possibly Yoichi, land on his ass, letting out a loud whine. Before Guren could tell him to shut up, he heard Yu's voice call him and the others.

"Hey, come here! We found a pathway!" the green eyed boy yelled, and once Guren's eyes got used to the darkness, he saw the boy standing about ten meters away from him with his foster brother. The green eyed boy was pointing down, and Guren could see that there was light ahead of them. Maybe this really was a pathway to the basement of the vampires.

He walked to Yu and Mika, looking down where Yu was pointing at. There were stairs down, lighted by few small lanterns. It wasn't much, but at least they could see ahead of them. But Guren noted, that the way down didn't seem safe - the stairs were made of cement, obviously, but it was cracked from many places and who knew, maybe it was a trap. The stairs went so deep down, that Guren couldn't see the end of them.

"Shall we go?" Yu asked, sounding excited again.

"I suppose we don't have any other choises now", Guren sighed. The younger raven head let out a strange squeak before taking the first step. "Carefully idiot! We don't know what's head of us, don't let your guard down."

"I know, I know", Yu said, waving his hand at Guren. "Don't worry, I have Mika with me. We'll watch each others back." He gave his foster brother a sweet smile, making Mika a little flustered. Guren rolled his eyes and followed the younger, who bravely started to take step after another, down to the darkness. Guren could tell that everyone except Yu was anxious and no one really wanted to go down the stairs, but like Guren had said before: they didn't have an another choice. It wasn't anything new that vampires liked to hide deep underground, so maybe, _maybe_ Shinya was down there too.

Guren was starting to feel a small spark of hope ignite inside of his heart. There was still a chance of finding Shinya alive, and Guren wasn't going to let that chance slip through his fingers.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Shinya's pov:

His head was hurting, a lot. It was like not only his physical body, but his mind as well felt like it would've been stapped non stop, sending cold shivers down Shinya's body. He was lying on cold hard ground, back at the dungeons, but this time he was alone. Shinya didn't know what had happened to Airi and the others, but he hadn't heard of them since Crowley brought him back.

What had happened after the vampire noble had taken a sip of Shinya's blood had really been just a big blur to the silver head. He didn't really remember had it even been Crowley who had brought him back there or not. But he did remember the words the thirteenth progenitor had said to him.

" _If I'd make you a vampire, you'd have no reason to help humans anymore."_

Shinya opened his eyes and blinked few times before he got used to the dim light surrounding him.

He was still human, he was sure of it. He hadn't drank any vampire blood. He grimaced as he slowly sat up, holding his head with his right hand. He felt dizzy, cold and hot at the same time. Shinya definitely had a fever and the fact that he still had so many broken bones and bruises all over his body, wasn't helping him. If he'd be a vampire, he'd be able to heal in no time…

 _No, stop it! You are not going to become a vampire, not in a million years!_ Shinya inwardly slapped himself. He could never become a one, he could never betray the JIDA. He could never betray the Hiragi-family, that had taken him in after his own family basically sold him out. Well, not his _family,_ since Shinya's real family was dead. But the Hiragi-family had given him a chance to live, and even though the life given to Shinya was nothing more than a Hell, at least he had seen the world and met wonderful people because of that. Shinya owed to the Hiragi-family, so much, that he would never be able to repay. _So stop thinking like you'd become a one._

Suddenly Shinya heard silent footsteps, warning him that someone was coming. A vampire, judging by the careful and very quiet steps, light as feather. Shinya lifted his gaze to look at the cell door, and he quietly observed the vampire who stood in front of it. It was a female one, judging by the long silky silver locks, falling outside the hood covering half of the vampire's face. And of course, the vampire had more feminine looks. For a moment, the vampire woman just stood there, staring down at Shinya. The silence between the two was unbearable, and Shinya was going to break it, but the vampire woman was faster.

"Shinya Hiragi, am I right?" the woman said, her voice smooth and silky and… _familiar?_

"Yes?" Shinya asked, giving the woman a questioning look.

There was a long pause again, as the woman seemed to search for right words. "I'm not really supposed to be here… but you probably want to know, if your squad members are alright", she quietly muttered. Shinya felt his heart skip a beat - was this vampire actually going to give him some information on his squad? He had his doubts, but the woman obviously saw the interested and concerned look on Shinya's face, the look he wasn't able to hide, as the woman let out a sweet chuckle.

 _Somehow, a very familiar sounding chuckle._

"I'm going to make this fast", the woman said, motioning Shinya to get a little closer. The silver haired man was too interested to actually care, was the woman going to like bite him or not, as he slowly moved closer to the door. He was taller than the female vampire and now that he was standing, he could actually look down at the vampire. And now that he also was closer, he could see the deep blood red eyes the vampire had. But unlike many other vampires, her eyes weren't cold and empty, they were full of different feelings, anger, sadness and kindness. Shinya was little puzzled to see a vampire full of such emotions, but it wasn't his first time seeing it. He had seen a look very close to the woman's before, in the eyes of Hyakuya Yu's foster brother, the blonde vampire who's name Shinya couldn't get into his mind.

They stared into each other's eyes before, the woman slightly touched Shinya's bruised cheek. It didn't get Shinya to react at all, but the hand was only there for a second. The blood red eyes turned away from Shinya, to the ground and the woman let out a sigh. If she would've been a human, Shinya would've asked if she was okay, but he knew that asking something like that from a vampire was stupid.

It wasn't like she would answer anyway.

"Everyone from your squad is still alive, but only for now that is", she quietly muttered. Shinya could only let out a relieved sigh, the weight on his shoulders getting a little lighter. "But like I said, _only for now._ It wont take long until someone will get killed. That's why I wanted to tell you… that you should really let Crowley-sama turn you into a vampire."

"What?" Shinya said. He hadn't expected for the woman to start giving out advices.

"You get to live and so does your squad. Isn't that all that matters?" the female vampire asked.

"No, of course not", Shinya answered.

"So, pride is more important than living?"

"Not really, but this isn't only the matter of my pride", Shinya said, a little annoyed. The woman let out a snort, before turning away. She was already five meters away from the cell door, when Shinya opened his mouth again.

"Thank you, I really mean it. Thank you for telling me that my squad is okay", he almost whispered. But the female vampire heard him, nonetheless and turned to give him a one last glance. There was a small smile on her lips, it was gentle and real, and reminded Shinya of someone he had known.

… _Hinata?_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

After the female vampire had left, Shinya was left alone again, for who knows how long. He didn't know what time it was, what was happening - Shinya was no longer even sure what he should do. He knew that he should never betray the JIDA, but at the same time he knew that he shouldn't let his squad die either. And it was tearing him apart from the inside. Breaking his fragile mask, his mind and slowly affecting him even physically.

Shinya was at a dead end and the was no way out.

He was _completely_ lost.

After hours of just lying around and trying to stay calm, someone finally came to him. It was a vampire Shinya did not know, but he wasn't a noble. The vampire opened Shinya's cell door and told him to come out and Shinya just followed the orders given to him. He had no idea what was going on, but all he could wish was that he wouldn't need to meet Crowley again. Or anyone of the nobles, to be exact. He didn't ask anything from the vampire who closed the cell door after him and started to lead Shinya out of the dungeon. He was pretty sure that the vampire didn't know much either, so he wasn't going to waste his time.

 _If I'm going to die, I'll still try to grab onto every second, hold on as long as I can,_ Shinya thought, lowering his gaze at the ground under his feet, so cold and hard. Shinya had always said to himself, that when his time would come, he'd let go right away and die as quickly as possible - but now that his time might have come, Shinya just wanted to live.

 _Does everyone feel the same? Everyone who dies, do they wish to live as well?_ Was Shinya being selfish, wishing to live when he had done nothing good in his life. Shinya might be on the side of the humans, but Kureto wasn't really famous for being a nice and loveable leader. And Shinya had stood next to him for years, followed his orders like a good servant would - even if those said orders meant killing innocent people, Shinya had done it.

 _Ridiculous,_ Shinya thought, biting his lower lip and frustration shooting over his body. He was fed up with himself, Kureto, the world, everything. Shinya finally came to a conclusion: he simply hated _everything._

He and the vampire came to a door, about one floor higher than the dungeon Shinya had been in. This door was small and almost unnoticeable, honestly if you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't have even noticed it. The vampire opened the door and motioned Shinya to get in, while he himself stayed out. Shinya was little uncertain as he walked into the room, where were no lights - it all told Shinya that something bad was going on. And the fact that the door was locked behind him confirmed Shinya that his believes were right.

The only light to the room came from a small, window and it wasn't even close to being enough. The room itself wasn't exactly small, but without enough light, Shinya couldn't tell so well. Sure, his eyes were keen, he had trained a lot to be able to find his target even at night, but usually he had his demon assisting him and with Byakkomaru's power, Shinya could easily see anywhere, who knew how far.

From the very first moment Shinya stepped into the room, he knew he wasn't alone. The room smelt like blood and sweat, and the air felt suffocating and it made Shinya want to puke. Everything in the room… just made Shinya feel bad. To put it shortly; the room smelt like _death._

"Ah, finally", said a familiar voice and suddenly, the lights were put on. Shinya hadn't even known there was electric in the vampire city, but obviously there was. Though, the light was old and hardly lighted up anything, but at least Shinya could now see better. "I was thinking you'd never come." The speaker was Zero, the arrogant vampire Shinya had learned to hate already. He was standing few meters away from Shinya, leaning on the thick wall, looking pretty chill. Shinya only gave him a quick glance, because his attention drifted somewhere else.

What he saw, made his heart skip a beat and suddenly Shinya had really hard time breathing.

In front of him, was a woman, a small, beautiful woman. She was hanging from the ceiling, chained up from her gentle and small hands, beautiful brown hair falling on her face, almost covering it up. She wasn't wearing anything, revealing the cruel bruises, and still bleeding wounds. There were small sweat drops on her once so beautiful and untouchable skin. Her eyes were closed, mouth parted a little, but there was no breathing. There were unshed tears in the long, black eyelashes and the peaceful look on her face was so misleading.

There was no breathing, no heartbeat.

There was no _life_ in her.

Shinya blinked his eyes once, twice, thrice, but nothing changed. The woman did not start moving, nor did she open her beautiful brown eyes. She was not coming back.

"No- no…" the breathless whimper left Shinya's mouth.

 _This wasn't supposed to happen._

"Hikaru…"

Shinya couldn't look at his dead squad member anymore, so instead he turned to look at the ground, his body shaking badly. But he would not cry, not in front of his enemy. He would not show such weakness.

 _But does it matter anymore?_

Suddenly a hand came to Shinya's chin and forced him to look up, to his dead squad member. Shinya pressed his eyes shut, he just couldn't take it. Guilt was eating him from the inside and the tears were threatening to fall.

What if Hikaru wasn't the only one? What if Hachirou or Hibiki… or maybe Airi…?

"The others are still alive", Zero said calmly, his hand moving away from Shinya's chin and the silver haired man turned to look at the vampire noble. There was no anger in Shinya's eyes, only guilt and sorrow. There was no way Shinya could push all the blame on the vampire noble, even though he had been the one who killed Hikaru. Shinya could tell it from the blood on Zero's clothes and from the way he smiled. But the blame… it was Shinya's fault.

He couldn't run away from it.

"But this will surely happen to the others as well, if you don't start singing soon, Hiragi", Zero continued.

Shinya took in a shaky breath and asked: "Why? Why didn't you choose me instead?"

The vampire noble let out a chuckle. "Isn't it obvious? You're a Hiragi - of course you know more than this mere soldier! You know what, your dear squad member here was a feisty one. She refused to scream and cry, she even dared to look me straight into the eyes while I beat her to death. I liked her - well, until she died, at least."

Shinya had to do his very best not to try and kill Zero right there and then. He knew he'd lose and so, he wasn't goingt try. But that didn't mean he didn't kill the vampire in his mind the most painful way possible.

"Awe, don't give me such an angry look~", Zero chuckled. "You could've stopped this. You could still stop it from happening to your other squad members."

"How do I know you haven't killed them already?" Shinya asked.

"You don't", Zero answered, moving away from Shinya, towards Hikaru and her fragile looking body. His hands moved up her face, silently brushing the pink parted lips, then the eyes, wiping away the tears and finally, Zero removed the hair from her face, so Shinya could see it fully.

It hurt Shinya, it hurt so much. It was obvious that it hadn't been even that long from Hikaru's death - who knew, maybe she had been still alive when Shinya had been on his way here? The fact that she still looked so very alive, it made the pain in Shinya's heart even bigger. It made him feel so much worse.

 _How am I going to tell about this to Hachirou?_ Shinya questioned himself.

"But I could show you", Zero said, coming back to Shinya, his hands now brushing Shinya's hair behind his ear. "You know, you still look very wonderful, despite the fact that you've been in the dungeons for a while now. Your skin is as pale as ever and you look tired… but your eyes, they're burning with cold fire, as before." Zero let out an amused chuckle. "I like that."

For that, Shinya finally slapped the vampire, as hard as he could. He knew it didn't affect Zero a bit, but at least it wiped that annoying smile away from the vampire's face. And Shinya gave the vampire noble a cold smile.

"Anything you wish", he said sarcastically, seeing the anger flashing inside Zero's eyes. _You deserved that._

"Tch, damn human. Don't you understand this situation? I could kill you and your whole squad right now, and no one would ever find out", Zero growled, his hand grabbing Shinya's wrist. The cold hand against Shinya's own felt wrong and Zero was squeezing his hand a bit too painfully. "I don't give a damn what Crowley-sama said, you don't deserve to be changed into a vampire. Sure you'd be beautiful and all, but you'd also betray us. And I don't like betrayers."

"Then I wont give you what you want", Shinya bluntly answered, earning a surprised look from Zero. "You said you hate betrayers. If I'd tell you all the secrets of the JIDA, then what would I be?" The vampire noble opened his mouth to answer, but Shinya was faster.

" _A betrayer_. Exactly", he said, an another angry growl leaving Zero's mouth, because Shinya was looking down on him, and he wasn't going to deny it. "We are soldiers, loyal to the JIDA. You wont get anything out of us even if you beat us to death." Shinya's eyes traveled to Hikaru and her unmoving body and he apologized to her in his head.

 _I'm so sorry, Hikaru. But don't worry, whatever is going to happen from now on, I'll surely be joining you soon,_ he thought. And then Shinya turned to look at Zero again. _And because of me, so are everyone else._

"I wont tell you anything and I have faith in my squad. They wont betray the JIDA", he said, his voice steadier than he thought it'd be. But Shinya was glad it was how it was, because it obviously fooled Zero. Shinya surely wasn't feeling as brave and strong as he acted, but he was _acting._ Shinya knew exactly how to put up a good act, one of the things he was actually good at.

"Oh really?" Zero mumbled, backing away from Shinya. They stared at each other for a moment, before the vampire noble let out a frustrated sounding snort. "Fine, but don't take your words back now, human. I'm going to do my very best to break you and make you _beg_ for mercy." Then Zero grabbed Shinya's hand once again and dragged him out of the door, towards an unknown location. Shinya wasn't resisting at all, but he was afraid.

Zero led him back to the dungeons, but this time, they took a turn in a different place than usually, and all Shinya was able to guess, was that he was being taken to where the rest of his squad was. And he was right.

Zero stopped in front of a small cell, and Shinya recognized Hachirou and Hibiki, who were at the other side of the cell, looking pretty bad. Hibiki was lying on the floor weakly, while Hachirou was sitting next to his brother, head in his hands. But when Shinya and Zero arrived, the brothers looked up and seeing Shinya made Hachirou's eyes widen.

"Shinya-sama!" he yelled, and despite the situation, the man sounded happy. And Shinya couldn't help but feel even more guilty - how was he going to tell that Hikaru, the woman Hachirou loved so deeply, was dead because of him? "You're alive! Thank god for that!" Hibiki let out a weak hello and Shinya sighed a bit. Hachirou gave Zero a meek glance, as he slowly walked to the cell door and Shinya reached his hand out to him. Their hands met and Shinya was taken aback by the coldness of Hachirou's hand. And that was also when he finally let the tears fall.

"Hachirou… I'm so sorry", he said, falling onto his knees and the other man kneeled down as well, hand squeezing Shinya's own reassuringly. "I-… it was my fault. I'm so sorry."

"Are you talking about Hikaru?" Hachirou's quiet voice asked and Shinya looked up to him in surprise. Their eyes met, and from the way Hachirou was looking at him, Shinya knew that the other man had already known what had happened to Hikaru. But despite all that, there was a gentle and warm look in Hachirou's eyes.

"I'm sorry", Shinya muttered, but this time, he looked Hachirou straight into the eyes. And in answer, Hachirou smiled a bit.

"I know and I'm sorry too. As a squad leader, you must feel horrible for letting your subordinate die. I couldn't possibly ever understand how you feel right now", the man said and Hibiki hummed in agreement from the back of the cell. "When Hikaru was taken away, don't worry, she knew what was going to happen. We had said goodbyes before and I despite all of this, I'm happy I knew her. And that I fell in love with her. Shinya-sama - or rather, _Shinya,_ I wouldn't change a thing."

"Me either", Hibiki said and Shinya felt strange warmth spread through his chest.

But of course Zero was going to end it. The vampire noble roughly kicked Hachirou on the chest, sending the other man away from the barred door, right on the back wall of the cell. Hachirou let out a grunt and fell to the floor.

"Hachirou!" Shinya yelled and he could feel his heart beating faster than ever before. Zero pulled him away with a one quick movement and opened the cell door.

"I think that was enough. Say your goodbyes, humans", the vampire noble said coldly, taking out his sword and Shinya's eyes widened in horror.

"You're not going to kill them now, are you?!" he said to the vampire noble, who just snorted as an answer.

"I have _no_ _need_ for them anymore."

"Shinya!" Hachirou yelled, getting up from the ground, as Zero slowly walked to him and Hibiki. "Please, you have to live on! Make it out of here, and make sure you take Airi-san with you! And don't ever forget - we're a squad, we're teammates!"

It was over with a one, quick flash.

The walls of the cell turned red, as well as the ground. The dungeon was filled with the scent of iron, the scent of _blood._

Hachirou was gone in the snap of fingers.

"We don't hate you, and don't you forget that", Hibiki whispered, but Shinya heard it anyway. There were tears in his eyes, but a smile on his face. An another flash of sword and Shinya could no longer see those dark green eyes.

He could no longer hear the laughter of Hachirou, hear Hibiki's annoyed sighs or see Hikaru's bright smile. Not _ever again._ The things he had learned to love, the people he had learned to care of.

Slowly, Shinya's squad was dying, one by one. And there was nothing Shinya could do to stop it. There was nothing to be done to save them.

And somewhere deep inside, Shinya's heart broke just a little more.

 _End of chapter 6_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	7. Chapter 7

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _A/N: Back again! So, finally I was able to update this story too… Thank you for all the lovely comments and the support on this story! I hope you'll like this chapter, tell me what you think after reading. But anyway, I'm not going to be able to update for an another month of so, due to the fact that I'm leaving for a long vacation with my family and I'll be returning in January._

 _With this, I wish all of you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!_

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

 _Chapter 7_

Shinoa's pov:

They were being stupid, following the underground stairs straight to the hands of the vampires. Shinoa knew this very well, and she was scared that it would be a trap. She was scared that they'd be late.

It was highly possible that Shinya had been killed a long time ago.

It was also highly possible that they were going to the wrong direction.

Shinoa knew this all, yet she shut up about it. It was the hopefulness in the eyes of her friends that kept her mouth shut. It was the hopefulness inside herself, that made her think the other way around. She didn't want to kill the small spark in her heart - Shinoa didn't know would she be able to take it. She didn't want to admit that there was a possibility that Shinya was dead already. She cared for the silver haired man too much, more than she ever should've.

Shinya had always been the older brother Shinoa never had, even though they weren't related by blood. He had been there when everyone else had given up on Shinoa. And even though Shinya always got punished by this, he still cared, still came back to Shinoa and took care of her. He smiled at her, he looked at her with fondness, he embraced her in a warm hug, he kept the monsters away. For years Shinoa had done nothing but looked up to him, but at the same time, she had also known, that no matter what, they'd still be a brother and a sister. Even if the war would tear them apart, they'd never forget each other.

And even though they were in a war, had been for years, Shinoa had never actually thought of losing Shinya. A major general was a _major general_ after all. Someone strong and out of reach - someone who would never get hurt. Shinya was supposed to be like a politician, not a fighter, even though, he was a pure blooded sniper. And even when Shinya left to fight, he always came back without a scratch. That's one of the reasons Shinoa was happy that Shinya was a sniper. A sniper fought from far, usually surviving the fights without any big injuries.

But now things had changed. Shinya was in trouble, possibly badly hurt and not only physically, but mentally as well. What if Shinya had snapped? What if he had seen some really cruel stuff, and now he would never go back to what he had been?

Shinoa was afraid that this meant losing her only sibling, who she really loved. Even if they'd save Shinya, it was possible that Shinya would have some kind of trauma and-

"Shinoa-san?" a sudden, sweet voice called out for her, and she stopped thinking. She turned around to see Sayuri walking behind her, a kind smile on her face. Shinoa had always thought her as a close and a valuable comrade, and she had a lot of respect for her. To stay so kind in a world like this… it was really something to be proud of. Though, sometimes her kindness could backfire.

"Yes?" Shinoa asked quietly, slowing down a bit so she and Sayuri could walk at the same pace.

"You seem really worried. It's not like you to be so down and quiet", Sayuri said, her smile becoming a bit sad, though Shinoa didn't see so well in the darkness of the tunnel. Shinoa gives Sayuri a tired smile and the brown haired woman nods knowingly. "So, you're worried about Shinya. Well, don't worry, you're not the only one. But cheer up, Shinoa-san. Shinya-sama is a strong person, and even though I believe you might know him even better than I do, I know for certain that he is a really strong willed person. He'll be fine."

 _If he hasn't died already._

Sayuri left it unsaid, but it still hung in the air, and Shinoa grimaced. "I know he's a strong person. But vampires have their own little ways of breaking people… They'll probably try to offer him something good - and we can't forget that Shi-nii's squad is there as well. He's always been weak when it comes to others, I don't think he'll risk their lives."

"When it comes to the JIDA, Shinya-sama will risk everything", Sayuri sighed, her smile disappearing. "Years he has worked for the Hiragi-family, though he never was a part of it. Not truly - the only person he cared for was you, Shinoa. After you and your squad ran away, Shinya had no reason to work for Kureto anymore. Still he did. Why?" Sayuri stayed quiet for a moment, and Shinoa waited. She obviously had something to say.

"Because Shinya knows no other way to live", was what the brown haired woman stated in the end. "It's sad how simple it is, but that's the truth we can't dodge. It's cruel, but I don't think Shinya-sama has any kind of memories of his own past before the JIDA and the Hiragi-family. What ever they did to him was probably awful."

Shinoa couldn't help but agree. She knew exactly how cruel her father and older brothers could be, not to even mention Mahiru.

"But", Sayuri continued, the kind smile coming back to her face. "He still stayed so, _so_ very kind. And that's what I admire in him the most - no matter what he has gone through, he still finds the courage to smile and to be kind towards other people. Out of all, I hope that part of him would never die."

Again, Shinoa agreed.

Sayuri was certainly right about Shinya's kindness and the way he smiled. Maybe it was always a little fake, but it meant something. It still meant that Shinya was there, unbroken.

Shinoa turned towards lieutenant Ichinose, and noticed that he had been looking at her and Sayuri the whole time. Their eyes met halfway, but the man was quick to turn his gaze away and Shinoa let out a weak chuckle. It was funny how Ichinose still denied his feelings for Shinya - had for the past five years at least. Longer, if possible.

"How damn long are these stairs?" Yu suddenly spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence. "We've been walking down for ages already and I still can't see the end!"

"Yu-chan, quiet down", Mika said calmly and maybe a little coldly, but Shinoa had noticed that whenever Mika talked with Yu, his voice would always be a little warmer than with others. "It's no surprise that these are so long - I'm certain that the vampire city we're looking for is at the end of these stairs. Vampires like to live deep underground."

"These stairs are really old", Goshi pointed out. "So old, that they had to be build by humans. But I don't get it. Why in the hell would humans ever build stairs this long in the first place? What good do you get out of these?"

"Well, it's possible that this was all build by the government, that ultimately destroyed the humanity and let the vampires take over", lieutenant Ichinose stated bluntly, bored look in his eyes. "It wouldn't be the first time something has been hidden from us. And now that Ikebukuro has basically been abandoned, vampires found this place perfect for them. Or maybe, they started to build these stairs, this underground place far before taking over the humanity and bringing destruction to earth. We know that they have been living hidden from the human eye for years."

"True…" Goshi nodded, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"And Yu-kun", Shinoa butted in. "We've been walking down for exactly ten minutes. Hold your horses for a while more. I think we're coming to an end soon."

Yu let out a scoff but shut up anyway. The raven haired boy kept leading them down for another ten minutes, until Shinoa suddenly saw light. The stairs ended quickly and now Shinoa could see five tunnels ahead of them, all leading to different destinations. Two of them were lighted up, three completely dark. There were many different scents in the air, but what Shinoa noticed, was the cool wind blowing against her face. The air was cold and fresh as well.

"One of these tunnels leads back outside", Mito-san said. "But I suppose we wont be taking that path. Does anyone have any ideas where to go now?"

"A damn good question", Ichinose mumbled.

"We should got his way", Mika suggested, pointing at one of the dark tunnels. "I can smell humans this way - probably the livestock the vampires have in every city. But if you're friends have been turned into livestock, maybe we could find them there?"

Shinoa ignored the dark look flashing through Yu's face when he hears the word 'livestock' and instead turned to look at lieutenant Ichinose.

"I'm sure that Shinya and his squad haven't been turned into livestock - the vampires must realize that they're far more valuable that that. If Shinya was wearing his uniform, they most certainly saw that he's a major general. But if that tunnel leads us to the city, we might as well take it. Maybe some human will help us."

"And if not?" Mito asked.

Ichinose let out a tired sigh. "Then we'd have no other choice but to make sure that person wont speak to the vampires about us."

The way he spoke told everyone that he was being serious and that made the atmosphere colder, more serious. Mika took the lead, Yu just behind him as they started to walk down the dark tunnel. Shinoa felt a bit uncertain about this, but she decided to trust Mika - they honestly had no other choices at the moment. Everyone knew to keep their guards up, weapons ready for any kind of attacks. It was routine to them and Shinoa couldn't help but feel a bit bitter about that. What had humans become, if all they could do was be afraid of their own shadow? Where had the time of glory gone to?

Had humanity really been that fragile from the very beginning?

So fragile, that a small crack was able to break it completely.

"We're there", Mika suddenly said. "I can smell vampires too, now. There's light ahead of us too. I'm telling you to keep your weapons ready now, there are guards for certain." They had been walking down the tunnel for about five minutes, so not too long, but Shinoa took out her scythe anyway, electricity running through her body. It was always like that with her demon-weapon. It gave power and will to fight for her and she was glad she had it.

Soon Shinoa saw the light as well, and it didn't take more than other five minutes for them to fully be inside the vampire city. Now there was light everywhere, and the roof was high, even hundred of meters above them, marble and rock shining all around them. Shinoa could see the tall, huge pillars holding the roof above them and hooded people walking around. There wasn't many of them, Mika explaining that that place of the city wasn't obviously the most crowded one.

"I honestly have never been in this city before", the blonde vampire told. "But if this is anything like the others, if the people here are the same, I think they'd put important prisoners to the lowest dungeon level. Which residences close by the main city. If we go there, we'll definitely be noticed and attacked, but that's the only place I think we could look from and actually find something."

"So, in other words, we'll have to put our lives in the line and enter the most crowded place this city has to offer. We'll have to go in the middle of vampires, right?" Makoto said, not sounding too happy about it. Shinoa opened her mouth to respond to him, but Yu was faster.

"Makoto, this is what war is. Putting our lives in the line is nothing new - and I'd rather save my comrades than run away knowing I left them behind", the raven haired boy said, serious look in his eyes. "We've come this far, we're not leaving now. This is a chance. A chance we have to take."

"Yu-kun is right", Shinoa agreed, smiling a little at the raven head. "It's not everyday he says something wise, so you better listen now Makoto. And even if we were to fail… let's not go down without a fight."

Makoto stared Shinoa for a moment, before snorting loudly. "Yeah, well that was obvious."

"Okay kids", lieutenant Ichinose interrupted them. "We'll be going now. The vampire boy can lead the way, we'll guard the back."

Mika said nothing to that, only turning around and heading towards the huge doors Shinoa noticed just then. Yu mumbled something about that 'the vampire boy has a name, idiot Guren' but no one really listened to him, not lieutenant Ichinose at least. Shinoa is amazed how easily they had managed to infiltrate the vampire city and that fact only made her even more worried - what was the probability for this to be a trap? Over fifty percent, if you asked from Shinoa. She knew everyone was thinking about the same thing as they continued their way towards the center of the city. It was funny that vampires actually passed them, yet did nothing to stop them. She could only feel gazes on herself and the others, but nothing happened.

"This is a trap", Shigure-san finally voiced out everyone's thoughts.

"Yeah, I noticed", lieutenant Ichinose said, keeping his gaze ahead of himself. "But let's keep going."

"Are you serious? Right now, we could still make it out alive, if we'd just turn around. Sure, vampires would probably try to stop us, but we could still defeat them!" Mito yelled to Ichinose, annoyed look on her face. "Once we go in the middle of them, there'll be too many of them. Who knows how many nobles they have here!"

"They obviously want something from us, otherwise they wouldn't have let us get this deep into their society", lieutenant Ichinose turned his gaze towards the red haired woman, who let out an annoyed snort. "I'm a bit curious to see what it is that they want. And believe me when I say, it's a bit too late to turn back now." The older raven head turned away again and the coldness of his voice sent cold shivers down Shinoa's back. Lieutenant Ichinose was right about that, Shinoa noted, turning to look behind her. There were so many vampires there, staring at them, blocking their way out. And in front of them was no one - they really were making sure that they were only going forward and not backing down.

"Mika, how long do we have to walk?" Yu asked from his best friend, speeding up a little so he would be walking in the same pace.

"I believe that the stairs to the dungeons are close by. The air is getting a bit more stuffier and I can smell blood", the blonde vampire answered calmly, yet Shinoa saw the disgust in his eyes.

The pathways they walked changed time to time, getting wider, then getting thinner. They passed halls, big and small, they saw few humans but mostly vampires and they just kept walking. Walking and walking, until finally, they reached their first locked door. Mika stopped in front of it. It was a huge, old stone door that had taken a lot of hits on it lifetime and it stood there, strongly and somehow, it made Shinoa want to turn and run away. She saw the heavy iron lock on it, but before she could do anything, Mika had already sliced it in two, and then kicking the door down with a one, easy kick.

"Whoa, carefully!" Kimizuki said, shaking his head while Yoichi laughed a bit awkwardly.

Behind the stone door were dark stairs leading down and just by looking at them, Shinoa felt sick. They looked endless and if there was an end for them, there would be nothing there. The air felt heavy and Shinoa swore she could hear whispering all around her, making her stomach flip nervously.

"Do we have to go down there?" Goshi asked, uncertain look on his face.

"That's where the dungeon is, at least", Mika told them, not looking like he'd be affected by the darkness surrounding them. Then all of a suddenly, the blonde vampire grabbed his sword tighter, his muscles visibly getting tenser. "Someone's coming up. And it's not a vampire."

Shinoa automatically called out her demon, Shi and the others did the same, exception being lieutenant Ichinose, who obviously didn't trust Mahiru enough to use her. They waited for a moment, until the sounds of someone running upstairs were visible for human ear as well. Shinoa listened carefully, biting her lip so hard it started to bleed. She could her the human's rapid, scared breath and that she was running barefooted, slipping time to time. And how did Shinoa know it was a woman? Well, the human coming closer by the second kept mumbling 'help me, help me' with a very womanly voice.

Then Shinoa could finally see her.

The woman came out of the darkness, running straight past everyone, until she pumped into Shinoa, with such force that she and the woman fell down. Shinoa was quick to recover and Yu and Mitsuba were by her side in a second, the blonde girl lifting the woman away from Shinoa and Yu pulling her up. The woman shook Mitsuba's hands away from herself, jumping back and Shinoa who had finally gotten up, had the chance to take a better look at her.

She was a young, blonde woman probably in her twenties with wide, grey eyes. She was only wearing a long, dirty white shirt that reached her bare knees easily, hiding everything needed. Her blonde hair was a mess and there were cuts in her arms, face, legs… just everywhere. In her hands, she was holding something but Shinoa couldn't tell what. To her, the woman seemed really familiar, but Shinoa wasn't able to tell how and why, she just did.

A silence fell between them, no one being able to do anything. The woman didn't make a move, instead she just stared at them, at _Shinoa_ , shocked look in her eyes. Then her mouth opened and words started to come out. "Yo- you're… The Hiragi girl! Yes! Shinya's younger sister", the woman slurred, and Shinoa saw tears building up in her grey eyes. "Oh my god… someone did hear him in the end - god bless all of you…"

"…Airi?" Sayuri asked with an uncertain voice, earning the blonde's attention. "Airi Katagiri, right?"

The grey eyes were full of confusion for a moment. "That's my name…"

Sayuri took a shaky step forward, stretching out her hand for the woman to take. It took a moment, but then the woman, Airi, took it, like her whole life would depend on it. "Airi-san", Sayuri mumbled. "Airi-san, look at you… sweetie, what they did to you is horrible."

Something snapped inside the blonde woman, because she suddenly pushed Sayuri away, startling everyone. Goshi and Mito moved forward, pulling Sayuri behind them and making the blonde woman feel threatened, because moved away, shrinking under the cold eyes of Guren's squad. "No- no", Airi whimpered. "Not me. Him. Shinya - someone help him…"

"Is Shin-nii down there?" Shinoa asked before she could stop herself.

Airi's eyes snapped back to her, and she started to nod her head violently. "I got away… no, they let me get away. Because I'm supposed to be a warning - they'll kill me. Like they killed everyone else." She started to cough suddenly and after a few moments, Shinoa realized that she was coughing up _blood._ Airi started to sob as well. "I'm going to die", she cried. "I'm going to die, here out of all places."

"Airi…", Shinoa heard Sayuri whisper, her voice sounding a bit heartbroken.

"No! No, no, no, no! It's not fair, it's not… we didn't deserve this. They didn't deserve to die - Shinya, he tried so hard", the woman was now sobbing, and Shinoa was having hard time keeping up with her words. But all of a suddenly she stopped sobbing, something calming her down. She seemed a bit… paranoid. And that scared Shinoa. "Hiragi… Shinoa, right?" she asked.

"Yeah?" Shinoa choked out, not entirely sure if it was wise to answer, when it was obvious that something was wrong with the blonde woman. Airi lifted her gaze to look at her, blood running down her chin and eyes full of tears.

But she was smiling. Smiling like she would've just seen something beautiful, smiling like she would've won the lottery.

Smiling like she'd be happy.

"Kill me, please."

It shocked everyone, but most of all, Sayuri who obviously knew the woman. Mika again, he seemed to understand. "They've poisoned her, she'll die anyway. Slowly and painfully. A warning, really", the blonde vampire said, pity visible in his voice. "Whatever they've done to her has made her crazy too… it would be best to finish her off now, than let her suffer."

"Mika!" Yu snapped at the blonde like he would've said something bad, even though he was just stating the facts.

Shinoa knew this and her grip of Shi got tighter.

Airi fell down to her knees, coughing up more blood. Whatever she was holding in her hand, glimmered in the light and Shinoa noticed that it's a small, silver key. "It's unfair that we had to suffer like this, but in all honesty, I'd rather die here, together with everyone else than live on, knowing I abandoned them", Airi said, her voice calmer now, like she would've suddenly gotten back to her senses. "We're soldiers of JIDA - for JIDA we live, for JIDA we die. That's the life I decided to live and that's the choice that lead me here, to this damn dungeon and this cursed city." Her voice was bitter and she stopped to cough again, now a lot more violently than before.

"Hiragi Shinoa… it would only fit the picture better, if you'd now kill me, wouldn't it? I'm not telling you to do it out of pity or because I'd want you to be scarred for life. I just… out of all, I wanted to die peacefully, at an old-age, alongside with the person I loved. But that's not going to happen", Airi told, now looking straight at Shinoa as she spoke. "My next best choice was to be killed quickly, rather by my comrade than enemy, as stupid as it might sound. But sometimes, missions end like this. I've killed many people over my life time, humans and vampires. I've seen enough death, but one more wouldn't matter, right?"

Shinoa's body started to move towards Airi's, but it felt like she wasn't the one controlling it, but someone else. The scythe in her hands felt heavier than ever before, yet it was light at the same time. When she was standing in front of Airi, so close that the woman could touch her, the blonde woman reached out her hand, holding the key there.

"Take it", she said. "It's the key to release Shinya's chains. The key to release his cursed gear, you'll need it. He's still alive down there, but it's a trap. You must've realized it." Shinoa took the key without a word and Airi chuckled. "You look scared, Hiragi girl. Funny thing… it's my first time seeing a Hiragi scared. Even after knowing Shinya, I never once saw him giving up, I never saw fear in his eyes. Still didn't, not even after all this pain."

"We'll save him", Shinoa was able to whisper out and Airi nodded, her smile growing satisfied.

"I know you will", she said, her voice starting to disappear. "But Shinoa, please remember, he's a human too. And humans hurt."

She would've liked to ask what Airi meant, but before she was able to do it, the woman grabbed her weapon and ran it through her chest, killing herself. Shinoa was left to stare in horror, as blood exploded all around her, few drops landing on her face as well. Sayuri screamed for Airi's name, but the blonde woman didn't hear it her. The smile on her face didn't fall off, as her body fell down to the ground, unmoving, lifeless. Soon, under it was a dark pool of blood.

Shinoa saw her own reflection on the blood. Her eyes are wide in horror, blood on her face, mouth slightly open. Her scythe was covered in blood, blood that belonged to an another human being.

That was the first time Shinoa truly caused the death of an another human.

And something inside of her would never be the same again.

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_

Guren's pov:

At first, they were all too shocked to move.

It happened so quickly and totally out of nowhere, that shock just took over all of them. Until Sayuri's cry broke their trance, Yu running towards Shinoa and pulling the ashen haired girl away from the dead woman, and Mito tried to get Sayuri quiet, while the light brown haired woman was sobbing uncontrollably.

"She was from Shinya's squad, right?" Shigure asked quietly.

"Yeah", Guren gritted though his teeth.

"The way she spoke… I'm pretty sure that it's safe for us to assume that the rest of Shinya's squad are dead as well", Shigure continued, her voice steady and emotionless as always. Guren knew that death no longer really affected her.

All Guren could do was nod again. His gaze went back from Shigure to the woman lying on the ground, a pool of blood under her. He couldn't help but grimace at the sight of that. Shinya would most certainly blame him about this, he would hate Guren for this.

Katagiri Airi had been a woman Guren hadn't personally known, he had only heard of her from Shinya, time to time Sayuri mentioned her. He had met her few times as well, when Shinya had still worked with her. She had always come out as a strong and independent kind of woman, and the fact that Guren had to see her like that, made him all the more sure that vampires really knew how to break a person. Guren had also always known about how Airi had felt towards Shinya and he had always thought that if anything, Shinya and her would end up together. But it never happened, and now it was no longer possible, unless Shinya would follow Airi to the other side.

 _But that's something I'm not going to let happen,_ he thought.

Sayuri was slowly starting to calm down and Shinoa seemed to wake up form the internal shock. Guren noticed the guilt shining in her eyes and he knew that it was something he'd need to discuss with the young Hiragi, but not now.

"So, are we still going? Airi just told us that it's a trap", Goshi asked, looking at Guren questioningly.

"We don't have a choice", Guren simply answered, turning towards the dungeon door and the dark pathway. "C'mon, let's not keep them waiting any longer." And with that, Guren stepped into the darkness and started to make his way down, the others following him.

"Lieutenant Ichinose…", Shinoa's quiet voice asked and Guren hummed to show that he heard. "This key… Do you want it? I believe Airi when she said that it can open the seal and release Shin-nii's cursed gear."

"I'm sure it will", Guren agreed. "But keep it, she gave it to you. Just make sure you wont lose it. Now, I don't think I really need to say this, but keep your guards up."

After what had felt like an eternity, they finally come to the end of the stairs. Seriously, Guren had just had it with stairs and endless hallways, his legs were getting tired of all the nonstop walking. And he knew that his squad was getting tired as well, but no one dared to voice it out. All Guren could wish for, was that they'd find Shinya and get out alive - he wasn't sure could they win if they'd need to fight, since they were pretty tired. And Guren wasn't going to be able to trust his cursed gear enough to use it. Who knows, maybe Mahiru would then take over him once again and make him kill everyone around him, including his friends. It was strange enough that she was still quiet and Guren was fearing for the worst. And he also knew, that Yu's time would come to an end soon as well, and if the raven haired kid would go on a rampage there, they'd seriously be fucked.

At the end of the stairs were two different hallways leading into different directions. They were both lighted up with small lanterns once again, and Guren could see dark cells all over. A bit freaky, he had to admit.

"This way", the blonde vampire boy said, taking the lead over Guren and turning at right. "I can smell more vampires this way and if it really is a trap, that's where we have to go. Also, the only human alive down here is also there - I assume that he is the person we're looking for."

"Lead the way", Guren just nodded and the blonde vampire started to walk, Yu coming right after him, making Guren roll his eyes. Who gave the idiot the permission to start acting on his own again? He should stay back rather than run into trouble.

They were half way through, when the vampires finally made a move. The cells they had passed had all been full of them and just when Guren saw the end of the hallway, they attacked. And they came with force, but luckily they had been prepared for it. Quickly, that small and really narrow hallway became a war zone. Guren was doing his best defending himself with his sword without activating the curse, but it was a bit hard, since vampires only died when you hit them with a cursed _fucking_ gear. At the moment, Guren was only able to hurt them a little and push forward.

It was half their luck that the hallway was as narrow as it was, since now it was easier for them to push and slay the vampires, but because it was so damn narrow, they didn't have all that much space to fight. So, when Sayuri finally got fed up and blew few walls up with an explosive talisman, making more space and sending few vampires flying.

Guren used that chance to move forward, Shinoa suddenly behind him. "If Shin-nii is in any of those cells, I have to use this key to free him from that seal", the ashen haired girl said, as the two of them made their way forward, kicking and fighting off all the vampires attacking them. It felt like there would be hundreds of them and Guren knew he'd need to use his cursed gear soon. Mika and Yu were doing a good job killing vampires and so were the others, but if Guren would actually be able to help then they'd get a lot more done…

"Shinoa, watch out", Guren said. He had made his decision. "I'm going to release my demon."

Shinoa turned to give him a worried, and a bit scared look. "Lieutenant Ichinose, are you sure that's a wise idea?" she asked.

"I don't have a choice right now. I will be able to control Mahiru", he answered, his voice a lot more sure than he actually felt. But it seemed to satisfy Shinoa, because she only nodded, continue her way forward. Guren grabbed his sword tighter, sweat running down his forehead. He felt useless at the moment and the only way to do something was to release his demon.

But could he actually control it?

He wasn't sure about it.

But he still needed to try. After all, Guren was so close to Shinya. He knew that the silver haired man was there, in the last cell. Waiting for him, for them. Had waited long enough, if you asked from Guren.

 _It's been way too long since I heard his teasing voice,_ Guren thought. _It's been way too long since I saw those damn sapphire blue eyes and that damn, annoying - yet the most beautiful - smile of his._

The thought of finally seeing Shinya again, hearing his voice, being able to feel his touch gave Guren the will-power need to continue. He took a deep breath in… and released his demon, Mahiru-no-Yo.

Power exploded all around him, killing the vampires closest to him. Guren felt satisfied with the impact his demon had managed to make and he couldn't help but smile, before continuing to slay the vampires. It was strange for him to use Mahiru-no-Yo like that again, after so long of not using it at all. And most of all, Guren was really surprised that he heard no voice in his mind, no sweet whispers.

This really was his chance.

"Guren!" Yu's voice suddenly called out and the older raven lifted his gaze to see that Yu and Mika had managed to make it to the last cell. "We found him!" And the boy wasn't able to say more, when new vampires came out of nowhere, attacking them.

Guren didn't get the whole point of letting them come this far and then trying to kill them, when they had almost managed to get to Shinya. Why had the vampires poisoned Airi Katagiri, lead them here and then attacked? He saw no point in that, and that made him worry. But now that Guren knew for sure, now that someone had confirmed that Shinya really was there, he pushed all those worries into the back of his mind and fought his way forward. Yu had already busted through the cell door and Shinoa had disappeared inside. This all just gave Guren more will to continue.

But all of suddenly, the cell next to him exploded, and a new vampire came into the picture. This one Guren recognized to be a noble from the strong and intimidating aura he had. The vampire noble was man with short, black hair and empty red eyes. Not someone Guren had seen before, but probably strong anyway. The noble lunged himself at Guren right away, sword ready to kill.

"You pitiful human, die!" the noble yelled and attacked so fast, that Guren was nearly pierced by his blade. But luckily he slipped just then, falling to the ground. And luckily he had quick reflexes, getting up from the ground and blocking the noble's new attack all in a less than five seconds.

"Could you please die quickly?" he asked from the noble. "I'm in a hurry right now, and I don't have time for long fights."

"Oh? Are you in a hurry to see that human friend of yours? I have to admit, he's someone you really want to safe", the vampire noble snorted, taking few steps back before attacking again. "He is a really pretty one for a human, not to mention his blood is so much more tastier than others' I've tasted -"

That was the wrong thing to say. Without a warning, Guren released more power off his cursed gear, surprising the noble and sending him fly. He didn't give him a chance to get up, as he lunged himself towards the noble, attacking him quickly and steadily.

"Whoa there! Did I hit a nerve?" the noble just jokes, not really getting the situation he is in. Guren couldn't help but smirk at how stupid and careless nobles were becoming by day. He sifted his position, suddenly attacking from left and once again surprising the noble, who had gotten used to Guren attacking from the right. It was a risky technique, because it left Guren's left side basically exposed, but luckily the noble really was stupid and he only gave attention to his own left side at the moment… and with a one quick movement Guren was able to sift his position again and slice of the noble's right arm.

This seemed to confuse the noble, as he stopped moving for a moment, giving Guren a chance to attack again and pierce him with his cursed gear. The red eyes stared at Guren in awe, before the vampire turned into ash, disappearing out of Guren's sight. The raven let out a sigh, but his break wasn't long when an another vampire attacked him. After defeating it, Guren noticed that he was only few meters away from the cell, Yu waving him to come faster. Shinoa had yet to come out and that made Guren worry again. He was sure Shinya hadn't been left untouched, the fact that the noble he had just killed had tasted his blood was an evidence of that, but it was highly possible that the silver haired man would be wounded too. Guren just had to hope that it would be nothing too bad, he just had to hope that it would be something that could heal.

"Guren, watch out!" Mito's voice interrupter Guren's thoughts, and the raven turned around, only to see vampire noble in front of his face, ready to kill him. Guren's eyes widened at the realization - he wouldn't be able to dodge it, not anymore.

And then there was a loud bang and a flash of lightning blue.

The vampire noble was gone, dead.

Guren turned his head around as fast as he could. Behind him, there was standing a tall man wearing a long white shirt with overly long sleeves and loose black pants, barefooted. His skin was paler than usually and full of ugly cuts and bruises, but there was still a (little smug) smile on his face. His silver hair was a mess and the familiar, sapphire blue eyes were shining brightly at Guren, making the raven head wordless. He hadn't even remembered that the silver haired man was this _beautiful._

The silver haired man walked to Guren with few careful steps and tapped him on the shoulder, slightly amused look in his shining eyes. There was a familiar rifle in his hand, indicating that Shinoa had been able to release the seal.

And when he finally spoke, the words light and full of warmth as always, Guren could've cried from relief.

"Ahaha, Guren, I knew you wouldn't survive without me", Shinya said with a singsong tone, one hand still resting on Guren's shoulder. "But who knew you were this hopeless? I'm surprised you made it this far."

There was sadness in his voice and Guren noticed the tired and broken look deep in his eyes, and he was about to talk but Shinya didn't give him the chance. His hand went up to Guren's cheek and it felt warm, soft against Guren's cold skin. Shinya's eyes stared straight into Guren's own for a moment, before his smile grew so wide that his eyes became just two crescent moons.

"Did you miss me, Guren~?" he asked.

And for the first time in forever, Guren answered truthfully, straight from the heart.

"Hell yes, I did."

 _End of chapter 7_

 _**Owari no Seraph**The Light That Disappeared**_


	8. Chapter 8

Owari no Seraph: The Light That Disappeared

 _a/n; bc I suddenly realized that I still love GureShin._

 _And lol, I'm back here too, I guess._

 _Hopefully you guys enjoy, no promises of a permanent return (meaning I'm not promising that I'll ever finish this story, sorry). But I'll continue it whenever I find inspiration, I promise^-^ My writing style has changed, so don't mind if things seem off and different from other chapters (I did try my best to make them similar and I'm still following the plot so dw too much)_

 _But anyway, happy readings!_

 _D/C: I don't own anything from Owari no Seraph, I only own my own OC's._

* * *

 _Chapter 8_

Guren's pov:

Shinya seemed to be really surprised by Guren's answer and even dared to start questioning him.

"Okay, what's wrong with you? Are you really Guren? Because he wouldn't answer like that", the silver-haired man questioned, moving his hand away from Guren's cheek and the raven had to do his very best not to pull it back. "Or maybe you're sick or something—this is not a trap, right?"

Guren's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Listen here, Shinya", he grunted. "I'm not sick and I don't care what you think—now, get your ass on the move, we're leaving now."

The doubt disappeared from Shinya's face and the silver-haired man chuckled. "I take back what I said, you're definitely Guren." A sigh left the perfect, now slightly bloodied, lips and for a moment, Shinya looked heartbroken—even with that smile on his face. "I hate you, you know? I really, _really_ hate you."

"I know", Guren could only nod.

He really did know.

Shinya's smile turned a little more genuine at that. "You're such a fool."

"Okay, lovebirds, moving on!" Yu's voice interrupted them, and Shinya raised his brow questioningly, while Guren was prepared to kill the younger raven. "We have to go now, before more vampires appear!" Luckily, that was enough to stop him from actually doing it.

"Shinya, can you run?" Guren asked, not being able to hide the worry in his voice. Despite smiling and standing there, Shinya looked bad. Not like that, he was still beautiful no matter what happened, but he just looked… _sick_. He was really pale; his eyes were empty and there were dark bags under them—not to mention the cuts and the blood on his shirt. Who knew how bad it was under all his clothing.

"Are you actually asking me to?" the silver-haired man asked tiredly.

"If you can't then… Tsk, _hell_ , if you can't run then I'll fucking carry you." The words he said made Shinya's eyes widen, before the man laughed quietly.

"Such irrational decisions, Guren. You can't carry me and run at the same time", he said and Guren was just about to retort his words somehow, but Shinya didn't let him. "I can run. I don't know for how long or how fast, but it's fine. I'll run."

"It'll hurt you, won't it?" Guren more like stated than asked.

Shinya smiled once again, his smile broken. "Idiot, of course it will."

"C'mon!" Yu yelled again, and this time both Guren and Shinya listened.

Guren was honestly surprised to see that Shinya ran easily as fast as him, or at least it seemed so. The silver-haired man showed no signs of being in pain, but instead of feeling better, it made Guren just feel worse. It was very obvious that Shinya was hurt, yet the silver-haired man was easily able to hide it. Just what the hell had he been through to learn to act so well?

Some of that Guren did know. The Hiragi-family had its own ways of… _training_ their children and Guren was sure Shinya went through a lot there—but he didn't know _everything_. And the raven head bet it was the worst he did not know of.

They reached the stairs up and out of the dungeons quite quickly, Guren and Shinya as the last ones. No one stopped even for a second, running upwards without hesitation. They don't have the time to move with caution now.

Guren ran next to Shinya, afraid of the other accidentally falling or disappearing from him. The whole time up he kept an eye on the other, while Shinya kept his eyes ahead of himself, only emptiness in them. When Guren finally saw light, he could sigh in relief.

"Don't", Shinya said. "Don't sigh just yet. We're still in the middle of vampires. Now they will just see us more easily."

"You didn't need to point that out", Guren mumbled grumpily and Shinya gave him an innocent smile, shrugging his shoulders. But suddenly the silver-haired man stopped and Guren stopped with him. They had stepped out of the dark tunnel of the dungeons and were now standing where the door used to be. Guren stared at Shinya questioningly, ready to ask why the other stopped, until he realized that Shinya was staring at something else. The beautiful sapphire blue eyes were wide with slight horror and confusion, and Guren followed his gaze until he saw it too.

Or rather, until he saw _her_.

Airi Katagiri, still lying dead in her own pool of blood, just where they left her.

"Oh no—shit, Shinya", Guren said and the others who had stopped as well, shared panicked looks. "Listen, we can't stop—"

Shinya turned to give Guren an angry glare which slightly surprised the raven and shut him up. The silver-haired man then turned back to his dead teammate, with furrowed brows and eyes closing for a moment. He looked like he was apologizing—which probably wasn't too far from the truth.

Guren stayed quiet, his heart throbbing painfully in his chest. Now Shinya looked so hurt, mentally ill, physically tired. His long eyelashes casted shadows on his delicate, pale skin and Guren swore he saw a single teardrop fall down. It was the first time Guren saw Shinya cry, even though it was only for a second, because the silver-haired man quite quickly collected himself and wiped the tear away. Or maybe Guren was just seeing things and Shinya didn't cry at all because when he turns back to Guren, there's no sign of pain on his face.

Just nothing.

There's _nothing_.

"Shinya, we need to go", Guren whispered just loud enough for the silver-haired man to hear, offering his hand. "C'mon, it'll be alright."

He was pretty sure that Shinya knew he was lying but decided to take Guren's offered hand anyway. The raven then pulled the other on the move again, telling the blonde vampire to lead the way. Guren had to get Shinya out as soon as possible, get him far away from these vampires and far away from Kureto.

And then, fix him. Guren would need to fix Shinya, pull those broken pieces back together—pieces he probably broke. And Guren hoped that the silver-haired man would then learn to forgive him.

 _Maybe someday._

"Tell me Guren", Shinya suddenly said, his fingers curling around Guren's tightly. "Does any of you even know what you're doing? Do you know the way out? Or are you doing this without any kind of a plan—"

"Of course, we are. There's no real plan", the raven-haired man answered right away, making Shinya shut up. The silver-haired man stares at him for a moment, his smile slipping away and right then and there, Guren swears that Shinya was close to killing him.

"Tsk… why are you like this?" the other then asked, his smile slipping back on his lips but seeming a lot tighter than before. "You're going to get yourself killed for nothing."

"Not for nothing."

"Saving one man isn't worth risking the lives of many others, Guren. Despite, the JIDA will have no use for me anymore. I've failed the mission—nii-san won't let this pass."

"Stop thinking about the JIDA for a moment, okay?" Guren told Shinya, pulling him closer. The silver-haired man's steps had started to grow slower, his exhaustion probably catching up with him. But they couldn't slow down now—Guren would drag Shinya out with him, if he really needed.

"I'm doing this for your sake, Shinya. I came here to save your ass to let you live—this has nothing to with the JIDA and we're not going back there, either."

"You're kidding, right?" Shinya asked him, suddenly stopping. Guren stopped with him, frowning at the other.

"Shinya, we shouldn't—"

"How stupid can you possibly be, Guren? _Of course_ we're going back to the JIDA. Of course _I'm_ going back!"

"No, we're not. Kureto will just try to kill you off again."

The silver-haired man's eyes flashed in anger but instead of lashing out at Guren like the raven head for a moment thought he'd do, Shinya just started to run again, after their allies. "Well then, I hope he succeeds the next time", the silver head just muttered, ignoring the surprised look Guren send him.

"Vampires coming!" Yu's scream then echoed through the air and Guren looked up, gritting his teeth together as he saw a dozen vampires lining up around them.

"Keep running!" he ordered despite it. "If we make it to the tunnels, we'll be on safer ground!"

"Yes sir", Makoto answered to that and they sped up, trying their best to manage back to the tunnels. Guren knew they weren't that far away but if the vampires now attacked and managed to damage, they would never make it—probably.

"Yoichi-kun", Shinya suddenly called out one of the newbies, running a little faster to catch up with said boy. "Can you work as a sniper for us?"

The boy send Shinya a horrified look and Guren frowned—what was Shinya up to now?

"B-but sir! We're on the move and—"

"And? You should still be able to shoot. Not as accurately as in a correct position but if you cannot shoot in a situation like this, are you really a sniper at all?" Shinya said back, his smile very small. There was an edge of warning in his tone, his sapphire blue eyes cold and filled with emotions Guren couldn't read.

But he knew when the silver head was pissed off—and now Shinya was outraged.

"I-I…" Yoichi stuttered, both flustered and slightly scared by the major general's sudden coldness.

"Forget it", Shinya just cut him off, turning to glance back. "We need something to distract the vampires. If it's not going to be your demon, then—" The silver head stretched out his hand, a familiar yet still so very strange, sound echoing through the air before there was a long rifle in his hand. "—I suppose I should do it."

"Shinya, are you sure?" Guren asked worriedly. He knew that Shinya was running out of energy—if he used Byakkomaru too much, it was going to overtake him, Guren was one hundred percent sure of that. And it would drain Shinya completely—soon the silver-haired man wouldn't be able to run anymore.

The other just send Guren a smile—a smile that was painfully fake, but familiar. "It'll be fine, Guren. Don't worry."

But of course, Guren could not just stop worrying over someone he cared for so much. He would never stop worrying about Shinya.

"Alright", Shinya then spoke up again, sounding calm and lighthearted as ever despite their situation and his own condition. "Our plan to get out of here is going to go like this; I will be creating a distraction for most of the vampires, but I cannot guarantee that nobles will fall for it. Shinoa-chan, Mitsuba-san, Goshi, back me up on this. Combat fighters, Yu-kun, Makoto-kun, Guren, Mito-san, and Kimizuki-kun, you have to push our way through the vampires ahead of us. The vampire, you get us out. Shigure-san, Sayuri-san, make sure no one gets through or we'll be dead in less than a second."

Guren caught up with Shinya's plan quickly and continued for the other: "Once we're in the tunnels, it'll be too narrow for the vampires to attack us all at once. That's our chance to get out. If nobles come in our way, don't fight them. We're not in the situation to start picking bigger fights, all we have to do is get through and out of here. We left our cars close by, if we reach them and get out of this city, we'll be safe."

"And from what I've seen, the dungeons weren't placed in the most crowded area of the city", Shinya added. "So if we work fast, we'll be out of here before all the vampires are breathing in our necks. Did you guys understand?"

"Yes sir!" came the replies and Shinya sent Guren a smug smile.

"See? Everything's under control", the silver-haired man chuckled, weakly tapping Guren's shoulder before turning to look back once more.

 _I hope so,_ Guren thought grimly before speeding up a little more. There were now vampires coming at them from ahead—he should prepare to fight them off and get them through and to the tunnels. "Get in formation, everyone! Combat fighters, in front, Yoichi is with us. Shinya, Shinoa, Goshi, and Mitsuba to the back. Shigure and Sayuri, in the middle."

The group got quickly into their new formation, Guren, and Shinya separating from each other to complete their sides of the mission.

"Everyone in position?" the raven head asked, glancing around. He received confirming nods and simple yells of 'yes sir'.

"Alright, then let's get the fuck out of here!"

* * *

Shinya's pov:

The silver-haired man watched Guren charge straight towards the vampires coming from ahead with no hesitation, an amused smile playing on his lips.

"Yah… count on Guren to use such vulgar words", the major general sighed before getting a little more serious. "Shinoa-chan, to my right. Mitsuba-san, to my left. Goshi, surround our group with smoke but keep the head clear, got it?"

"No problem", Goshi nodded, giving him a thumbs-up and then he got straight to work.

"What do you want us to do, sir?" Mitsuba asked from Shinya's left right, nervously holding her cursed gear.

"If I mess up, you'll be our distraction", the silver-haired man shortly explained. "I can only pull this off once—at least in this condition. But it should set the vampires off, they won't know about my weaknesses." He turned towards the front.

"Guren! Ten seconds!" he yelled, receiving a quick glance from said man, messaging that he heard Shinya.

"Ten seconds to what?" Shinoa asked from next to him.

Shinya had no time to explain. Guren would understand him, they had been fighting next to each other for years—Guren _had_ to understand him. He stopped fully, turning around and positioning his gun.

"Don't stop running!" he ordered Shinoa and Mitsuba. "And turn away!"

The silver-haired man didn't check if his younger sister and the blonde girl had listened to him. _Four seconds_ , he thought, his hands gripping tightly onto Byakkomaru. He could feel the demon's power pulse in his veins, run through his body with his blood, whispering into his ear.

"Two", he whispered. _Aim_ , he thought. _Breathe_. "One. Byakkomaru, now!"

The power that left his rifle is destructive, sending Shinya backward as well. He could see a surge of bright blue light, aiming at the floor right ahead the first vampires closing in from behind and then—everything exploded.

The ground crumbled and the buildings trembled from the force that had suddenly hit the floor, pierced right through it and deep into the bedrock of the whole city. Shinya couldn't see anything but smoke from the spot he had shot, no vampires coming through.

 _Success_ , he thought, swiftly getting up from the ground. Byakkomaru disappeared from his hands and the major general then started to run after the rest. He caught up with Shinoa and Mitsuba quickly, both girls trying their best not to look behind.

"It's okay", Shinya said, breathing quite heavily when he reached the two. "I warned you to not look because Byakkomaru's light could've blinded you. Now, just concentrate on running."

The silver head looked ahead, the tension in his shoulders easing a little when he saw that Guren and the rest didn't seem to be in trouble with the few vampires left ahead of them. But then he glanced back behind, seeing that maybe two or three vampires had started to make their way out of the smoky cloud he created.

They were noble vampires, one of them Shinya even recognized. The female vampire that had been with Zero when his squad got capture—she was strong, the silver head knew. They wouldn't be able to defeat her like this.

 _Shit…_ Shinya cursed, biting his lip until he tasted blood. "Guren! How much more? We got nobles behind us!"

"Just a little bit more!" came Guren's answer from somewhere ahead and Shinya could only trust that.

 _You can't,_ Byakkomaru darkly whispered in his mind. _You can't trust him anymore. After all, he has that demon inside of him… And you're running out of energy._

Shinya's steps haltered, and he nearly fell behind. _Not now!_ The silver-haired major general panicked a little, even his smile faltering. He could feel it clearly—his legs felt heavier, his body and mind hurting from all over—nothing felt right and Shinya could see dark spots start to fill his eyesight.

Putting all of Byakkomaru's energy in one blow like that was not something Shinya was supposed to do—he had been ordered not to use that once Hiragi Tenri had seen its destructiveness and the strain it brought upon Shinya.

 _It was a suicidal move_ , Hiragi Tenri had said to him once.

 _Byakkomaru_! The major general thought, gritting his teeth together as he practically begged his body to run forward. He couldn't fall behind now, couldn't stop now—not when Guren had given him some hope of getting out.

And Shinya wanted to see the sun, at least once more.

He wanted to see the sky and the clouds, maybe even the stars and the moon. At least once more.

 _Give me strength,_ he ordered his demon. _Give me the strength to run out of here and make sure that they survive. Just give me that and I'll—_

 _You'll what?_ Byakkomaru asked him, sounding amused. _Give yourself to me, finally?_

 _I don't think I'm going to survive,_ Shinya honestly thought, breathing out heavily. _But they need to. All of them, I have to make sure they do._

A picture of Airi, Hikaru, Hachirou, and Hibiki flashed in his mind and he smiled sadly. _Byakkomaru, I don't care what's going to happen to my body. If I'm not going to survive, it's okay. I have people waiting for me, a lot of them._

Shinya could see all of them—all those people he had cared for that had passed away before him, left him too early.

His parents, Midoriya—the boy he had befriended when forced to go through Hiragi's training and eventually, the boy Shinya _killed_ —, he could see his first mentor, the woman who had taught him to be a sniper and all his comrades. Shinya could see them flash before his eyes, it all ending with his squad.

 _Airi-san,_ the silver head thought. _Forgive me._

His demon gave it to him, power like Shinya asked. The silver-haired man sighed as he felt his limbs moving a bit faster again, his eyesight sharpening and breathing easing a little. He could do this, Shinya could get out—get _them_ out. Get _Guren_ out of here, safely.

But at the same time, the newfound power ran through his veins, Shinya could feel his mind darkening. Byakkomaru's whispers got stronger and it felt like the demon would be digging into his heart, turning his blood black and taking everything there was to take. Shinya knew that dark marks ran across his skin but luckily, he had the shirt to cover them, so no one would notice—they'd probably think that he was getting possessed and panic or something.

They wouldn't be that far off, though. Byakkomaru would possess Shinya, drown him in complete darkness and eat his soul at this rate.

"Shinya!" Guren's sudden yell cut his thoughts off and the silver head looked up. "We're at the tunnels, hurry up!"

The major general could feel his small and fake smile grow wider and genuine. For Guren's sake, it would be fine. He didn't mind dying if it meant that Guren and his family would get out alive—Shinya's own family was dead already, he had no one left.

Guren was different from him.

He had a family, all these people around him—Shinya had to make sure Guren would not lose any of them because of him.

 _Byakkomaru_ , Shinya thought, smiling as he sped up a little more, running into the dark tunnel and after Guren. _You were right about me, you know?_

 _About what?_ The tiger-demon asked in his mind, seeming a little confused.

 _About Guren… you were right. I would choose him over myself anytime_. Shinya looked up at the raven-haired man who had slowed down to allow the silver head to catch up with him. He smiled at Guren, feeling strangely relaxed. He didn't really hate the man. He could never hate Guren no matter how he'd hurt Shinya.

 _Hm…_ Byakkomaru hummed, sending deep vibrations through Shinya's body. _I guess I was._

"C'mon", Guren said suddenly, breaking the heavy silence above them all. "We'll reach the stairs soon and then all have to do is run up and we'll be out. You can do that, right Shinya?"

 _No_ , the silver head thought but he nodded anyway. He barely had any strength to speak if he was honest. Shinya had to give his all to just concentrate on running or he'd fall behind and Byakkomaru would take over. Despite him being in a pretty good relationship with the demon, they always had just one thought in mind— _devour_.

Byakkomaru really wasn't any different when it came to that, but Shinya trusted the tiger-demon anyway. He had to, if he wanted to survive through this.

They got to the stairs soon, just like Guren promised and Shinya could see how many let out relieved sighs already. They were nearly out, indeed, but then—

There was a dark flash, wind howling in Shinya's ears and a powerful gush of air hit them, sending them flying against the walls and ground. Shinya himself flew right on Guren and the two fell on the ground together, groaning at the same time.

"Tsk, humans… did you really think you'd get out so easily?" a voice asked, and Shinya raised his head slowly. The blow had come from behind them. He could see at least five vampires closing in, all seeming to be nobles. The woman he had recognized wasn't there, but these guys would be enough trouble already.

"I have to admit, you've done a good job getting this far", the vampire who had talked continued, grinning madly.

"Guren…" Shinya shook his friend's shoulder weakly. "Please tell me you have a backup plan."

"No", came the answer Shinya already expected.

 _Shit, we're doomed,_ the silver head thought, trying to get up. Suddenly a wave of pain surged through his body and he fell back down, gritting his teeth together. _What now? Byakkomaru—_

 _There's nothing I can do anymore, really. Your body can't physically take it anymore, master. I can give you power, yes, but if your body can't put it to use, it's not that helpful,_ the demon answered him before Shinya managed to even finish his complaint.

 _So, you mean that this is it for me?_ He asked, smiling bitterly.

 _Yes and no,_ Byakkomaru simply said, purring lowly. _Look behind you, behind the stairs._

Shinya blinked his eyes a couple of times before whipping his head around. It took a moment for his eyes to focus on anything but then he saw it—or rather, he saw _her_.

 _It's her_ —he thought, eyes widening.

The silver-haired vampire he had seen, the one who reminded Hinata a little too much. Now she was hiding behind the stairs up, her cloak tightly around her body but the dark red eyes glimmered brightly even from under the hood.

 _What is she doing here?_ Shinya questioned.

 _Helping you,_ Byakkomaru purred.

 _B-but why…?_

The major general could feel how amused Byakkomaru was about his denial. _You know why, Shinya. You know who she is. Now, take the hand offered to you. After all, Guren needs to survive, doesn't he?_

As much as the silver-haired man didn't want to admit it, his demon was right. Guren and his squad needed to survive.

"Guren, I have a plan", Shinya whispered, turning back to the raven-haired man kneeling next to him. "Trust me, okay? Don't question anything."

"What are you talking about, Shinya?" Guren asked back, sending him a questioning look. "Are you going to pull another trump-card out of your sleeve?"

The silver head smiled. "Maybe."

Then, he turned to the stairs where the female vampire was hiding at. He nodded, barely noticeable and mouthed: _'I'll distract, you get us out.'_

Shinya had no other choice but to trust his demon and his instincts right now. He couldn't be sure about the vampire's identity, but Shinya had no time to really start to doubt. And besides, he should be able to recognize his own sister, now shouldn't he? Even if it had been years since they last saw. Even if he didn't know how the hell she was alive.

He had to trust himself, now.

 _Byakkomaru,_ Shinya called out to his demon. _Let's do this, once more._

"Everyone, prepare to run", he called out loudly, his rifle appearing in his hands just as the vampires charged forward, tired of the humans' resistance.

"Just one shot…" the silver-haired man gritted his teeth together, aiming at the first vampire. " _There_ —Byakkomaru, go!" He pressed the trigger without thinking any further and without waiting to see did he even hit, Shinya grabbed Guren's arm and pulled him up with himself.

He could do this. He could run and get out. Shinya had to.

"This way!" Shinya could hear the female vampire call out for him and he didn't hesitate to follow her voice, dragging Guren after himself.

"Shinya! Where are we going?" the raven head questioned loudly.

"I told you not to question me!" Shinya answered, glancing back at the man. "Just—trust me on this one, Guren! I'll get you guys out, I promise." _Because I wasn't able to save Airi. I wasn't able to save any of them, I have to save at least you guys._

He was sure that Guren and the rest had a lot of complaints and wonders of what the hell was going on, but luckily, they still followed Shinya. They put their trust on him just like that—it made Shinya wonder if he really deserved it.

"There's a van waiting outside", the female vampire running ahead of them said. "It's filled with everything a human could need and you'll fit inside—take it and get out of here."

"Who the hell are you?" Guren asked.

The female vampire ignored the raven head, instead turning to glance at Shinya. "You know where to go, right? You know what place is safe, Shinya."

The major general met blood red eyes and the two stared at each other for a moment, before Shinya understood what she meant.

"Got it", he nodded, and the vampire smiled.

"Good—oh, we're out. Hurry up before those nobles catch up to us." She then sped up and Shinya quickly followed, wondering how the hell he was able to do that but not minding it. His body could crash down later for all he cared.

They came out into the sunlight just like the female vampire had said, the path they had followed taking them to central Ikebukuro. In their panicked states, however, no one had the chance to enjoy the fresh air and sunlight.

"Get in the van and drive away, quickly!" the vampire told them. "I won't be able to protect you guys at all—heck, I'm not risking myself any more than this."

"What the—who the hell are you, exactly?" Yu asked, only now realizing that they had a new companion.

"Are you staying behind?" Shinya butted in, ushering Guren to go and check the van. To his surprise, the raven head went easily.

The female vampire nodded. "I have to. This is my place… but Shinya, to where you'll be going next, maybe I'll come by some day. For now, however, I have to stay. And you have to go. Not back to the humans but back home."

"Home?" Shinya asked.

The female vampire took her hood of then, finally revealing her whole face to the silver-haired man. Her long silky and straight silver locks fell perfectly on her shoulders, pale skin against red lips and red eyes.

She looked painfully familiar. _Too_ _familiar_.

It seemed like she had stopped aging around the age sixteen. But when… when was she turned? Who did it— _why_ was she turned?

"There's only one home for us, Shinya", Hinata said, nodding her head towards the van. "Go back there."

"B-but… you—"

Suddenly, an angry yell echoed through the air. "Don't let the humans escape!"

"Shinya, go!" Hinata yelled at him, suddenly reaching over to push him towards the van at the same time Guren yelled: "Shinya, come on!"

There was a yank on his hand—Shinoa was pulling him away from the silver-haired vampire who also pushed him away.

"Wait—why, Hinata—t-tell me w-why—"

"Don't trust the Hiragis, Shinya. Promise me you won't trust them!"

But Shinya couldn't utter another word from his mouth, too shocked and confused after seeing his long-lost twin sister. He could feel himself being yanked backward roughly, both Shinoa and Makoto dragging him away from the vampire who just stared at him with sad, red eyes.

Eyes Shinya didn't recognize but with a smile on her face he knew all too well, she was saying _goodbye_ to him before he even managed to say _hello_.

 _Wait…_ he thought. _Wait. Wait no—no, that's Hinata. That's my sister. That's my family—_

 _Shinya,_ Byakkomaru's voice suddenly whispered in his mind, loudly ringing through his head. _Sleep_.

And before the silver head could even make a sound, the world around him turned black.

* * *

He felt cold and the ground under him was hard, much like the floor of the dungeons he had just escaped. It smelled like iron and dirt, blood, just like at the dungeons.

 _No_ —Shinya blinked his eyes open, gasping loudly as he sat up as quick as possible.

 _N-no… we just got out,_ he thought in horror as he looked around. His hands were chained again and this time his legs too. The dungeons were even darker than he remembered them to be and it was quiet, deathly so.

"H-how—"

"Shinya", a voice suddenly called, and the silver-haired man whipped his head around. Behind him was standing a blonde woman, her eyes cold and unfamiliar.

"A-Airi-san?" Shinya asked in a broken voice. "W-what are you…? Y-you're alive—"

"No", Airi interrupted him coldly, kneeling down next to him. "I'm dead. We're all dead."

Shinya could feel his blood run cold and he started to tremble even against his own will. _Stop_ , he thought. _Stop, you stupid body._

"T-then… this is a dream, r-right?"

Airi said nothing to that only scooped closer to Shinya, her cold breath tickling the man's cheek. He leaned away, shivering and trembling even stronger.

"I won't forgive you", the blonde woman whispered, the grey of her eyes turning black. "I will never forgive you, Shinya."

"W-what—why are you—"

"We won't forgive you either", a new voice came in and Shinya turned to look behind him, only to see the rest of his squad standing there. They all had those dark, cold eyes Shinya did not recognize and he could feel himself paralyzing.

"Shinya, we trusted you", Hikaru spoke up, her eyes empty—dead. "Why didn't you save us? Why didn't you join us?"

"H-Hikaru-san…" Shinya could only whisper out her name in horror. He had never even managed to say goodbye to the beautiful brunette woman—this was too cruel.

 _Byakkomaru, stop_ , he thought _. Bring me back, Byakkomaru please._

He knew this was his demon's doings. It was calling out to his darkest desires, trying to destroy his sense of self and the last of Shinya's heart. _Byakkomaru please—_

The dream dissolved and suddenly Shinya was sitting in literal emptiness, surrounded by nothing but white. He blinked his eyes a couple of moments, still somewhat sensing his squad's presence, Airi's breath on his lips, the scent of strawberries she always carried mixed with blood.

"We could've saved them", Byakkomaru's voice suddenly echoed through the emptiness and Shinya turned his head a little to meet eyes with another pair of cold, sapphire blue. The white tiger was lying on the ground not too far away from Shinya, watching him like always. "Your squad… we could've saved them all."

"You're lying", Shinya answered to that, turning away.

The tiger laughed, the sound being hearty and nearly purring. Shinya could hear how it got up and started to walk towards him—but instead of soft fur, it was pale and cold hands that came in touch with his skin.

"Shinya, Shinya, my dearest", Byakkomaru purred into his ear, curling her hands tightly around shoulders, hugging him from behind. "Had you just given yourself to me, we could've had it all."

"Stop", Shinya whispered to that.

His demon didn't; instead, she just leaned further onto him, resting her head on his. Blue hair fell on Shinya's shoulder and her sweet, blueberry-like scent flickered in the air, surrounding him. It wasn't usual for Byakkomaru to take her human form and honestly, Shinya preferred it like that—when Byakkomaru was just a tiger, she was much less dangerous, much more obedient.

Like this, she could affect Shinya a lot more.

And she knew that too.

The silver head could feel her lips dragging along his cheek, cold like always. "Your love for Guren will eventually destroy you, Shinya. I know I can already feed off your desire to be with him, but there's something you desire even more than that right now—and that is to have your squad back. You miss them, don't you?"

"Always stating the obvious, aren't you?" Shinya sighed and Byakkomaru laughed.

"We could revenge them, you know", she then said, resting her head in the crook of Shinya's neck. The silver head let her, feeling too exhausted to stop Byakkomaru from playing with him—his heart ached too much, and he was just _so_ _tired_.

But Shinya knew he shouldn't give in and he wasn't going to do that.

"Revenge is not important", he said, turning his head away. Byakkomaru's answer was to rub her head against him like the feline she truly was.

"So you say… but you want it, don't you? You want to revenge all of them—not only your squad but your family, your friends, your mentor and all your allies… you want to give them justice, don't you?"

Shinya didn't try to deny that because Byakkomaru was right. He either wanted to die or find a release from this pain. He wanted to die or revenge—or die while trying to revenge. But then there was Guren… Shinya didn't trust the raven head enough, he would surely get in more trouble if he wouldn't be there watching his back.

So, he shouldn't leave. Not yet, at least.

"Tsk… him again", Byakkomaru sounded displeased, her sharp teeth grazing Shinya's skin. "Forget Ichinose, Shinya. I'm right here—I can bring Airi here too. Hikaru, Hachirou, and Hibiki… I can bring them all here, for you."

As she said that, the four appeared in front of them—but of course Shinya knew that these shadows in front of him weren't his squad members. They were all dead, after all, and no force in this world could bring back the dead.

"Shinya", Airi called out to him and unlike before, she was smiling happily. "I've been waiting for you."

"You'll stay with us, right?" Hachirou asked then, grinning like usually.

"It would be nice to just sit down and talk, for once", Hibiki added with a small smile, nodding at Shinya. His form wavered in the air and the silver head grimaced.

"Shinya-san", Hikaru then said, smiling so warmly that Shinya almost fell for it. "Let's go home together, alright?"

"See?" Byakkomaru whispered into his ear, her hold on the silver head tightening. "They're waiting for you. They want you to stay here, with them. I'll bring them all back for you, Shinya. _All_ of them."

Shinya looked up to see more shadowy figures forming behind his squad, he could see his mother and father standing close to each other, smiling peacefully and motioning him to come closer—he could see young children grinning behind the two adults, looking ready to play and he could see a lot of soldiers, his comrades, standing side by side.

"Shinya", Airi said again, taking a step closer, reaching out her hand. "Stay here with us. You're safe here."

"I can't", Shinya mumbled and Airi's hand fell down. "I'm sorry, Airi-san. I can't stay with you."

He didn't wait for the woman to answer, not believing that he could take it. Instead, he turned to Byakkomaru, surprising the blue-haired woman.

"Enough of this", he said, voice cold and stern. "I don't want to see any of them."

Byakkomaru smiled and pulled away. "Lies, Shinya. Lies but I'll take it. Your determination, your greed… they're still so strong. Your desire to protect and love Guren is strong, your desire to protect his family is strong and—" The blue-haired demon turned to send Shinya an amused look, her voice turning sickeningly sweet.

"Your desire to die is strong. I like it."

And with that, she dissolved in air, taking everyone else with her.

"Of course, you'd say that", Shinya mumbled, a smile forming on his lips as well. "That is my _strongest_ desire, after all."

 _End of Chapter 8_


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